


Not quite right

by Dusklatte



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alcohol, Almost major character death but not quite, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Attempt(s), Attempted Murder, Bets & Wagers, Bets of the wholesome kind though!, Blackmail, Bonding over poisons because that's what you do when you date right?, Claude is scheming uh oh, Concerned Jeralt is Concerned, Confrontations, Dreams, F/M, Family Reunions, Injury, Jeralt doing his best to look out for Byleth ;u;, Jeralt just wants his daughter to be happy gdi, Kidnapping, Killing, Love Confessions, Major Character Injury, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Timeskip relationship, Sothis is quiet... for now., Stabbing, Student!Byleth, The Golden Deer sure are lucky with their new professor... aka not byleth..., Weird dreams, What if Byleth and Jeralt didn't meet Claude Dimitri and Edelgard at Remire, parental concern, what if situation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-17 02:43:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 48,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20613641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusklatte/pseuds/Dusklatte
Summary: Byleth had a weird feeling that she should have remained in Remire for just a few more minutes before she, her father, and her fellow mercenaries go to their next job in Kingdom territory.The dreams she starts to have about a person in yellow makes things even worse.





	1. Leaving in five

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just coughing my lungs out, my throat is killing, and I think I've gone through about a tree's worth in tissue. I had to start writing this idea I've been planning for about a week now to distract myself;;;

Byleth had constantly been plagued with the same two dreams, year in, year out. The most frequent one was a bloody war in a field, and a woman who ended the fighting in an excessively violent way. She would pull out her dagger, and would plunge it into a man’s chest over and over. Blood was gushing out of the gaping holes she was forming in his chest cavity, as well as his mouth. Then, when she knew that he was dead, she would embrace his sword… and for some reason, called it “Mother”. The second dream was simply of a sleeping girl on a throne made of stone.

She never had both dreams in the same night though. It made her wonder whether there was any significance, but she couldn’t focus on it for long.

“You remember that our next job is in the Kingdom, right?” Byleth looked up at her father, who had a raised eyebrow as he noticed that she seemed distracted. To ease his concerns, she nodded.

“Of course, Father. You’ve not stopped telling me,” she began, before bringing her hand up to her chin as she recalled the details of the job. “Something to do with a bitter lord with a vengeance?”

“Yeah. Now go get your stuff, we’re leaving before sunrise.”

For some reason, Byleth’s eyes then went over to the door of the room they were in, half-expecting one of their fellow mercenaries to come in saying that something was going on in the village outskirts.

“Hey, did you hear me, kid? Go get your stuff. Meet me outside in five.” Jeralt quickly left the room, leaving Byleth responsible for making sure she gathered what she needed. She did have some sort of nagging feeling in her head that she should have been elsewhere though, but she knew it was pointless to dwell on it. If she needed to be elsewhere, she would have been told. It’s part of the job description, after all.

She kept her face entirely straight as she picked up a few vulneraries and accessories for battle and tossed them into a canvas bag which she had. She checked to make sure she had some of her dried food supplies in there too, before slinging it over her shoulder and grabbing her sword.

_It was time for another day on the job._

* * *

* * *

“Fuuuuuck!” Between some trees just on the outskirts of Remire Village were three Officer’s Academy students, forced into battle against a large group of thieves. “If you two hadn’t have followed me-!”

“We would be _dead, _Claude. Now shoot that thief who is approaching from a distance.” The lone female of the group looked angry as she shouted orders to her fellow student, before glancing at the other in the trio, who was non-stop impaling thieves on his lance. “Dimitri, continue as you are, and you will aggravate them further. We will have no opportunities to leave this situation alive.”

“You are not my commander, Edelgard. I shall do as I have been trained to do, and that is battle with my lance.”

“You heard the prince, princess.”

A simultaneous “Don’t distract me, Claude!” from both sides made the student with a bow sigh.

“Fine, fine… I’m going up into that tree to get a better vantage point. Might be able to spot their leader with a bit of added height,” Claude grumbled, before grabbing onto a sturdy enough branch and hauling himself up into the tree. “And I can already see your faces. I’m _not _going to make a tactical retreat this time. We’ve got thieves surrounding us on three sides, and a village on the other. And we don’t want the villagers to get involved in the situation we’ve gotten into. Would've been useful if there were a group of mercenaries or fighters there, though...”

“'The situation _w__e've_ gotten into'?!” Dimitri growled, pulling his lance out of the stomach of one thief, before flicking it upward to shatter the jaw of another who was aiming to attack Claude’s legs to knock him out of the tree. “I believe it was _you _who aggravated the situation by running!”

“Enough! The blame rests upon the one who was supposed to be monitoring us for our training exercises. Do you see them now, when we are in a legitimate life-or-death situation? No.” The argument between Claude and Dimitri died down when Edelgard’s now surprisingly calm voice echoed between the trees. “Now, we must hold on long enough for the Knights of Seiros to arrive – they were called for when we settled for the night in order to escort us back to the academy to help avoid situations such as this, so we must be patient.”

So, the battling continued. Of course, there were limitations on how long the students could last. There was a point where Claude had fired his last arrow, resulting in him climbing further up into the tree to make sure that he didn’t become a liability for Edelgard and Dimitri. He did his best to help by shouting out the enemy's positions, but he was mostly blanked out.

Soon, there was a loud snapping noise when Edelgard’s axe came into contact with a shield a thief was wearing. The blade of the training axe fell to the ground, leaving her with a splintered stick with little to no use against shields. That led to her resorting to battling with a dagger, which was extremely dangerous considering that she could barely land a hit on the enemies surrounding her when she had an axe.

The final straw was when a man who appeared to be the leader of the thieves emerged, and somehow managed to ambush Dimitri and disarm him. Though his lance was just about in reach, the thief leader’s foot planted itself firmly on his wrist, making him hiss in pain simply because of the way his wrist had been positioned.

“Well… Time to finish you noble brats off! Starting with… the blue one.”

When Claude realised that the thief leader was about to try and slice of Dimitri’s head, and that the Prince of Faerghus seemed to be both panicked and enraged, he decided to use his bow as a last resort. He had considered trying to shoot some twigs from the tree, but they weren’t streamline enough for him to aim properly. Instead, he was aiming to use his bow like an axe.

Once he had jumped out of the tree though, he was instantly swarmed by thieves. So, he tried to give Edelgard a pleading look to save Dimitri from imminent death. Unfortunately, the Imperial Princess was in a similar situation to him.

Claude had no idea on what to do.

_The entire situation was hopeless. _

Faerghus will be left without a royal family when Dimitri falls, as House Blaiddyd will be no more. The Imperial Princess, and current heir to the Empire will be offed, and presumably her uncle, Lord Arundel, will get the throne when the time comes. If he were to die? Well, House Riegan would also lose its sole legitimate heir, and Almyra would lose its crown prince.

But… Claude resigned himself to this. No schemes could get them out of this situation.

“Have no fear, the Knights of Seiros are here!”

_Unless Alois was to make an abrupt entrance._

* * *

* * *

“Kid. You’ve been distracted ever since we left Remire. You okay?” Byleth was caught by surprise when Jeralt started to talk to her as they progressed towards the border between the Empire and the Kingdom. “You haven’t left something behind, have you? I told you to make sure that you had everything that you needed...”

“I’m fine. Just thinking.” Byleth continued walking forward, until she realised that Jeralt and his horse had stopped. She turned around, and gave him her usual blank stare. “You want to know what I was thinking about, don’t you?”

Jeralt sighed as he dismounted, and approached his daughter with a solemn smile. “You don’t have to say what’s bothering you if you don’t want to. But, uh… Your old man is here if you ever want to talk.”

Byleth nodded, before she realised that her lips had curved upwards slightly.

“Well… You’re smiling. That’s a rare sight. I’m glad to know that you can still put your trust in me though.”

Her smile quickly faded. “How come? I will always trust you, Father. You make it sound like I don’t trust you enough to tell you when something is wrong.” She folded her arms over, and her dull blue eyes began to bore into Jeralt’s. “Have you done something?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s just that you don’t show emotions often, but I can tell when something is on your mind. Like now.”

“No… As I said, I’m just thinking. I had a weird feeling before we left Remire that we needed to stay for a few more minutes, but we can’t leave a job waiting, can we?” She then turned her back and started advancing once again. “We need to catch up with the others, Father.”

Jeralt frowned. He could tell that she was hiding something from him… Call it a ‘_father’s intuition_’ or a ‘_I’ve raised this emotionless kid since she was a baby, I can tell that she’s hiding something_’ intuition… But he knew that it was going to eat away at her head before long. He had to find out sooner or later what she was bothered by…

He made a mental note in his head to write down in his journal once they set up camp for the night that he needed to investigate what Byleth was thinking about.


	2. Can't have a lesson without a teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth dreams.  
Claude just wants some time alone after fighting the thieves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I've got nothing better to do than writing at the moment... It's the only way I'm keeping myself distracted from this horrible cold I've got...
> 
> After this the updates will slow down, 'cause I've been playing Minecraft quite a bit too recently... Plus FByleth in glasses is the cutest heckin' thing ever.

“Lady Edelgard!”

“Your Highness!”

Claude sighed out loud when he didn’t have somebody rushing to his side when he, his fellow house leaders, and the Knights of Seiros returned to Garreg Mach monastery after the previous night’s incident. But to be fair, he preferred his ‘lone wolf’ status, compared to their highnesses with Hubert and Dedue.

“Students… What has happened to you? And what of the Professor who was meant to be accompanying you all?” After a few moments of reunions and whatnot, Rhea emerged from the doors of the monastery. Her eyes widened when she realised that the trio were plagued with a variety of injuries. “Seteth, may you escort our House Leaders to Professor Manuela in the infirmary? Alois, do you know what has happened?”

Claude always felt himself stiffen up in Rhea’s presence. There was something about her which didn’t sit right, but he hadn’t been at the academy long enough to have had the chance to investigate.

“I’m fine, just got a few cuts and scrapes from climbing into a tree. I’ll skip going to-” Claude did his best to skip out on being dragged to the infirmary (of anyone, Dimitri was the only one who desperately needed looking at), but he was met with a glare from Seteth. “_Fine, _I’ll go… Not that I really need to...”

The air was heavy as the students followed Seteth. Hubert and Dedue had followed along too. Edelgard and Hubert were whispering between each other, and the conversation ended with Hubert glaring daggers at him, as though he wished him a slow and painful death. Dimitri and Dedue were silent, however… Though maybe that was because Dimitri couldn’t talk. He was holding onto his wrist and wincing in pain, biting into his bottom lip so that he didn’t indicate that he was in pain.

“Hey, uh… Seteth, I think you’re gonna have to prioritise getting His Princeliness to the infirmary… He’s clearly broken his wrist,” Claude eventually stated, holding his hands behind his head. “The leader of the thieves kinda just stomped on his-”

“_Shut it!” _Dimitri eventually hissed, his fingers trembling against the arm he was trying to support. “I- I have _not _broken my- Ah!” He then had to stop for a moment, because Claude had poked his wrist.

“If it wasn’t broken, you wouldn’t have cried out like that.”

Seteth sighed out loud. “Claude. I can tell that you wish to be dismissed and would let you go, but Lady Rhea wishes for a written statement on what happened during your training exercise. It will be easier in an environment such as the infirmary. If we ever are to find the Professor who was supposed to be monitoring you, we shall need your statements as evidence when they are tried for their crimes.” He continued walking, not even looking back at the group of students behind him.

* * *

* * *

Byleth was silent as she sat cross-legged in the camp with she and her group had set up for the night. She hadn’t been to sleep yet, but she also wasn’t on lookout so didn’t need to be awake. She was tired though…

She also couldn’t help but think about the nagging feeling in her head that she should have remained in Remire for a few more minutes. Not that she could do anything about it, it wasn’t as though she had the power to manipulate time… Though even then, she also had a weird feeling when that thought passed through her mind.

She then looked at Jeralt, who was sleeping in a hammock between two trees. He had chosen it because he would, in his words, ‘rather get himself tangled in this thing than sleep in the mud’. Not that it was even muddy – the closer they got to Faerghus, the colder the ground was, with mud quite unlikely.

She noticed that his journal was resting on his chest, a pencil in his hand that was hanging off the hammock. He must have been writing in it just before he fell asleep… She did always feel curious about what was in it, but had never bothered with acting on that curiosity. There were always more important things to do.

Like now, for example. She needed to _sleep._

She proceeded to lie back down on her bedroll, and started to stare up into the clouds. She was just going to have to… hope that the sounds of nature could make her fall asleep.

However, she struggled. It took counting birds flying overhead, tip-toeing off to go and get a bottle of beer which she knew her father had stashed away, and even forcing herself to keep her eyes closed before she finally did begin to dream.

Her dream was not one of the usual ones this time. She could see someone she had never seen before, but at the same time, the sleeping girl on the throne was floating in the air around her, and she was holding onto the sword which the woman from the war had embraced and called ‘Mother’.

She tilted her head in confusion as the new person approached her, with them steadily transitioning from a silhouette to a human possessing features expected of a person.

“_Hey, Teach. You coming?”_

Byleth raised an eyebrow. “Teach? Who is that?” The boy? Man? Male who appeared to be a similar age to her? Well, whoever he was, he continued to walk over to her. He had a wide grin on his face, it being framed with a small braid on one side of his head. He also had a thing with the colour yellow – there was a cape over his shoulder of that colour, after all.

“_It’s you, silly. Now come on, we’ve got a lesson to get to! Can’t have a lesson without a teacher, __can we?__” _He winked, took hold of her hand, and started pulling her along… Into a horrible, mist-like darkness. The floating throne girl tried to grab hold of her to stop her, but she couldn’t.

She bolted upright when she ended up completely surrounded by the darkness in her dream, and realised that the skies were a hazy hue of orange. It was the start of sunrise… But her dream had been short. So… very short.

She glanced around and realised that her allies were beginning to wake up from their own dreams.

What Byleth couldn’t understand was how she had visualised that person so clearly… she had never seen anyone who even looked like him before. Hell, she rarely saw anyone with his skin-tone except for when they had jobs which involved fighting Almyrans.

It was then that she noticed that Jeralt was awake, and had a raised eyebrow as he looked at her. She nodded at him to assure him that she was okay, before she returned to those thoughts.

_Could that man have had anything to do with the reason why she felt as though she should have remained in Remire for a bit longer?_

* * *

* * *

The Golden Deer classroom was mostly quiet, aside from students exchanging notes with one-another, and the largest member of the class (in terms of muscle and heart) devouring what was likely his third plate of food of the day. It was mid-morning, and long past the time for lessons to have began.

From what could be heard, Manuela was teaching the Blue Lions (though this was at Rhea’s insistence due to Dimitri’s shattered wrist and bruised back), and Hanneman had the Black Eagles. That left the Golden Deer with… no teacher at all. Their teacher, who was supposed to be lecturing them as of that day, just so happened to be the coward that allowed the house leaders to be grievously injured by thieves.

“Well… Guess we can’t have a lesson without a teacher, can we?” Claude sighed as he stood up from his desk, before stretching his arms. After all, it’s what he had been instructed to do after his injuries. He had pulled muscles in his arms and legs after his tree stunt, and was covered in scrapes and bruises. “Not that any of you will need me, but I will be at-”

“Your desk. Sit down, unless you want a duel.”

Claude flinched at the cold voice which came from behind him, before a hand landed on his shoulder and forced him down onto his seat. He whined in pain for a moment, before he watched as the person approached the front of the classroom. On their way, they did a variety of things which sent chills down everyone’s spines.

Raphael’s food snatched away from him and tossed in a general direction of a bin. Marianne was snapped at to look up and pay attention, or else. Hilda, who was too busy focussing on sorting out her hair, had one of her twintails grabbed hold of before being ordered to stop unless she wanted a haircut there and then.

It was after that when the other students frantically sorted themselves out, before they became victim to the angry sounding person. Yet still, Ignatz had his textbook slammed shut (almost on his hands), Lysithea received a harsh glare for appearing too eager, Lorenz was told that he was sitting up too straight, and Leonie was ordered to stop looking at every student who had been lectured about something or another.

“Right. I’ll keep this simple. I’m your new professor. I don’t care if you have any set plans for lessons today today. There is a mock battle in a few days and _each and every single one of you _will pick up a sword and have a duel with me in the training grounds. Injury or not, von Riegan.”

Then the class realised who exactly their professor was… The ever so delightful Jeritza.


	3. Planning sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is getting ready for the next job.
> 
> Claude is not getting ready for the mock battle.

“Right, everyone. I’ll keep what we know about this next job brief. As you all know, the next job is in the Kingdom. Specifically in Gaspard territory, so not too far from where we are now. We’ve been hired by the current head of House Gaspard.” Jeralt was crouched by a large map of Fódlan set out on the ground which he and his group of mercenaries always took with them. “We’ve got to make sure we set some boundaries so we’re not exploited, because we know that nobles can get it into their heads that we’ve somehow ended up exclusively their employees and not travelling mercenaries.”

Byleth’s eyes quickly scanned over her allies to see if they looked confused in any way, before looking at her father and the map once more. “Do we have a timeline for this job? When it starts, ends, and all of that?” She eventually asked. However, rather than continuing to focus on the Gaspard territory on the map, her eyes drifted towards the centre of the map, where large ink stains appeared to have blotted out a labelled location. She could faintly see the outline of a building through the ink, but nothing more.

“No. It’s why we’re heading there now. Lord Lonato wants to provide us with more information on the job, and to provide us an advance payment before we start the job. He doesn’t give us info or pay us, we ain’t helping. We’ll seek another job instead.” Jeralt then rose to his feet, and looked at the group. “As ever, you’ll be with me when we get this information, Byleth. The rest of you, when we arrive in Gaspard territory, split yourselves up into three groups. Restocking supplies, repairing broken equipment, and odd jobs for local residents which can help with providing extra funding.”

Everyone confirmed that they understood that they were doing, before going off in their own directions in their campsite in preparation to continue travelling.

Soon enough, only Byleth and Jeralt were left behind. Byleth glanced at Jeralt for a moment, before she spoke. “It didn’t feel right leaving Remire when we did.”

“Huh? Is _that _what was bothering you?” Jeralt rolled up the map and tied some string around the middle, before he paused. “Please don’t tell me that you’re bleeding. Seriously. We don’t have the stuff to help you until we get to Gaspard… damn.”

The tiniest hint of amusement formed on Byleth’s face when she realised what he was implying, before shaking her head. “I’m not, Father. I just felt that we should have stayed behind for a few more minutes. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, I had it in my head that thieves chasing some people were going to appear.”

“Oh damn. That’s a relief… I was half expecting you to say that lady things were happening, and because you’re the only female here...” He then walked over to Byleth, and patted her shoulder. “If there had been thieves, the people we sent ahead would have sent a message back. Or we would’ve been called for. So there isn’t any need to get all bothered about the time that we left.”

Byleth nodded in agreement. He was right as always - there couldn’t have been thieves near Remire when they left. Sure, it didn’t explain the strange dream she had been having since then, about the person wearing yellow, but his explanation was enough to put her mind at ease.

“Anyway… If that’s all you wanted to say, I’m going to go and check how my weapons are. How about you do some fishing in the nearby lake to see if you can catch us tonight’s meal? You’ve got a knack for catching big ones, after all.”

* * *

* * *

It was the day before the mock battle between the Golden Deer, Blue Lions, and Black Eagles. All of the classes were busy in their preparations for the battle. Some classes (the Blue Lions and Black Eagles) were more eager than others (the Golden Deer).

It had only been two or three days since Jeritza became the professor of their class, but for most of them, it had felt like multiple lifetimes had passed in that short timeframe. It had reached the point that Claude had decided to hold an emergency meeting after classes that day. It was a bit of a squeeze for the class to fit into Claude’s room, but once they were in, the door was locked and the curtains were drawn.

“Ugh… I’m tired enough, Claude… why did you have to drag us here to do _more _stuff?” Hilda whined, dramatically falling back onto his bed. “It’s torture enough being bossed around by Professor Jeritza...”

“I agree… I’m all for working hard and pushing our limits, but that man is forcing us to go even beyond that!” Lysithea complained, her voice sounding exasperated. “Please tell me that there is a good reason for you calling us here...”

Claude grabbed the chair from his desk, spun it around so that its back was facing his classmates, before sitting on it backwards. He leaned his arms against the back, wincing slightly as the wood pressed into his bruises, before nodding. “Professor Jeritza is the entire reason I’ve called everyone here… It’s almost as though he’s trying to kill us, with how hard he’s trying to make us exert ourselves. Me especially! I got injured in a compulsory house leader training trip, and he seems to think that means I can fight even more!” He then rested his chin on his arms. “So… As you all know, we’ve got that mock battle tomorrow. We’ve got four choices on what we can do… I want to know what you all think.”

Lorenz sighed, and rested his hand against his forehead in disbelief. “Well, seeming as you are the only one possessing your door’s key, and we cannot leave until you unlock the door… _enlighten us.”_

“Nice to see your enthusiasm, Lorenz!” Claude winked at the noble, before he cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter. “Option one – we submit to Professor Jeritza’s whims in battle tomorrow. Swords only, as they’re the only weapon he seems to want us to use at the moment.”

Raphael sat down on Claude’s bed then, making it creak loudly and perhaps also snap, which made Hilda sit upright and shriek. Aside from that, nobody reacted.

_Option one was out of the window. Good. He hated that option._

“Option two is that when Jeritza is looking at us or near to us, we use swords as he expects us to. _But _when he’s far enough away and not looking, we use our weapons or magic of choice. Looking at you two, Marianne and Lysithea. You seem more more… attuned to magic than the rest of us.”

There were a few mumbles, but again, no confirmation of agreement for his plan.

_Potentially a fallback plan then?_

“Number three is one I personally recommend...” Claude then smirked, reached into a drawer in his desk, and pulled out eight vials. “Here just so happens to be eight doses of laxative, the effects of which activate usually after a good night of sleep… Wouldn’t it be a shame if the Golden Deer students happened to have caught an unfortunate bug in their digestive systems? And all because of… hmm… Maybe eating late because of a certain professor forcing them to train from sunrise to sunset, meaning that they got to the dining hall late, and the food had spoiled?”

Everyone gave Claude a wide-eyed look of shock. There were a few chuckles mixed in with looks of absolute disgust.

_Maybe this one? There was a bit more enthusiasm from some of them there._

“I’m afraid to ask what your last plan is, Claude...” Ignatz whispered, before the house leader grinned.

“I’m glad that you did ask though, Ignatz!” He reached into his drawer again, and pulled out another eight vials. “Here we have _sixteen _doses of laxative.”


	4. Suspicious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth and Jeralt are ready to meet Lord Lonato to find out what their next job is.
> 
> Claude has had a tough few days.

“Ah, Jeralt. It is so good to see you once again. It is a shame it couldn’t be under these circumstances, but when I heard that you had separated yourself from the Church of Seiros and had established a band of mercenaries, I felt that there would be no-one better for the job...”

Byleth already felt suspicious of the man stood in front of her and her father, so her hand slowly moved to rest on her dagger as if to indicate to the lord that he had better not be playing any tricks here.

“It’s good to see you too, Lord Lonato.” Jeralt’s voice was monotonous as he reached for his daughter’s hand and pulled it away from her weapon. “I was surprised to hear you reach out to me though. Something serious must be going on…” He then realised that the lord was staring at his daughter, who appeared quite restless at not being allowed to hold her weapons. “Oh, and I should introduce you to Byleth. She’s my second-in-command and also my daughter. Any jobs done by the group have to be run through the both of us.”

The lord nodded, before returning his attention to Jeralt. “Understandable. But before I provide any details, I must ask… Are you still close to the Church, or are the rumours that you have separated from it true?”

Byleth raised her eyebrow. This was the second time this man had mentioned this ‘Church’. The only thing she knew about it was that her father always told her to ‘avoid it like the plague’.

“No… I don’t associate with them. I won’t say why, but let’s just say that I’m not exactly happy with some of the higher-ups in it.”

“So we are on the same page… Come to my study, I’ll request for drinks and we’ll talk about this job which I would like to hire you for.”

Even though she felt a bit calmer, Byleth was still wary about the situation. She might have to do some further reading into this Lord Lonato once they had the details of the job… Something didn’t feel quite right.

* * *

* * *

Claude was slumped over a table in the Garreg Mach library. His body _ached. _

His fellow Golden Deer had rejected his plans involving laxatives, meaning that they had participated in the mock battle. However, despite their crushing defeat at the hands of the Black Eagles and Hubert’s dark magic, he had considered the battle a victory.

Seteth had noticed that the class were worn down and not in a suitable state for battle, and that quite a few students were not being permitted to play to their strengths, such as Lysithea with magic and himself with a bow. As such, there had been a slight reshuffling of teachers. Following a lot of shouting, that was.

Jeritza had been reassigned the role of a training instructor, and could finally return to his life of duelling against people who were actually willing (Felix), and somewhat creepily following Mercedes about.

The Golden Deer class had been taken on by Seteth himself, due to a lack of any other people with the availability to teach and have appropriate knowledge. Of course, it meant that Claude had to pick up his guard around the class with regard to what he said and did in front of Mr Pious himself, especially if it involved him mentioning the Church and his lack of belief in said Church.

The first day of class with Seteth had been perfectly fine. Everyone finally had a chance to be students over being a warrior. Hell, even Hilda almost cried in happiness at the sight of a textbook. All had been well and good… until discussions turned to their performance in the mock battle.

Lorenz had given Claude some sort of snarky look, before informing Seteth of some of Claude’s plans with regard to the battle.

That night, crowds gathered around Claude’s room as he received the lecture of a lifetime regarding possession of ‘unauthorised substances’ and ‘concerning uses of medicinal herbs’. They were briskly confiscated, followed by him receiving a _wonderful _punishment – two weeks of detentions after classes, and responsibility of cleaning and polishing the cathedral floors under the supervision of Shamir.

Now it was late evening, and after serving his sentence for the day, Claude had gone up to the library, picked up a random book, and had sat down to read it. His knees were bruised and aching, whilst his arms were tense and sore. This was all on top of the injuries he was still recovering from following himself, Edelgard and Dimitri being cornered at Remire Village.

“Ugh...” He let his head fall down onto the book, his body doing its best to resist even that simple movement. “Not even that long into the school year, and already I feel like I’m dying...”

His words went mostly unheard as he then proceeded to move the book out from under his head before he gave his face papercuts from the way he was lying. “If only our class had a decent teacher...”

“Hmm, rather than a ‘decent’ professor, what you and your class need is consistency.”

Claude tiredly looked over to the source of the voice, but didn’t raise his head as he spoke. “Yeah… No kidding, Tomas. I’d rather die a million deaths than get a fourth professor in under what, three weeks?”

“Surely that is a bit overdramatic, Claude.”

“Nope. Not even beginning to get dramatic in the slightest. I’d even prefer to… I dunno… Be kidnapped, tortured and experimented on than go through any more of this.”

A heavy silence filled the library after what Claude had said, with him also not noticing the raised eyebrow which Tomas had been giving him.

“Well, perhaps it is time for you to get some well needed rest, young man. The library is closing up now. Why not take that book with you? I’ve heard that people have attempted to censor some of the information told in it, whereas that copy is one of the few originals left.”

Claude then sat up, and finally got a chance to look at the book he had taken hold of when he had entered the room.

‘_The Early Civilisations of Fódlan’._

“Thanks, Tomas… I think I will take you up on your offer.” Claude closed the book, before giving a tired smile to the librarian. “When would you want it returned?”

“Take however long you need. Keep it, if you will. It is in a much better place in the hands of the younger generation than in a dusty old place such as this.”


	5. Blood and Blackmail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is suspicious of the job, in particular the way in which Jeralt accepted it.

Their job consists of three parts – one was to scope out information regarding possible spies within the ranks of the Western Church. Jeralt had been particularly stubborn with regards to helping any form of Church, but after a night to think about it, he seemed to have suddenly come around to the idea. Byleth found his change in mind suspicious, but decided for now that she needed to have the benefit of the doubt.

The second part was to help with training up new soldiers for the Western Church. Apparently the Central Church of Seiros had been providing fewer and fewer resources to the Western Church, including ceasing to send new knights and soldiers. Byleth wasn’t sure why this ‘Central Church’ held so much power, but again, she decided to push it to the back of her mind.

The third part was to back up Lord Lonato, his soldiers, and the Western Church at the end of the Garland Moon. They had apparently been planning to carry out an attack on some sort of ‘growing menace’, but had never had the ability to carry out the attack. Jeralt and his mercenaries being present, and having trained up the soldiers, was apparently going to give them enough manpower.

_The whole job wreaked of manipulation. Something was acting in the shadows, and she intended to find out what._

A few nights after Jeralt had accepted the job, Byleth had accompanied him to a local tavern which some of the locals had recommended. She noticed that her father seemed more tired than usual, with dark circles under his eyes. She knew that drinking alcohol when tired was an extremely bad idea, so she made sure not to leave him alone.

“It’s not often we get to share a pint, is it, kid?” The pair had been silent as they sat opposite each other at one of the tables, with Jeralt breaking the silence as he watched his daughter warily take a small sip of her drink. “Not that you’ve been able to drink for long, but still...”

“It’s not like you to get all emotional like this, father.” Byleth placed her glass down, and raised an eyebrow. “Something is bothering you.”

“Huh? You think something is bothering me? No, I’m just glad we have the chance to drink together. This job is going to keep us busy, so it’s good to spend time with you.”

Byleth tapped her finger on the table for a moment. Something… really didn’t feel right. Jeralt was absolutely being plagued by something – and she was unsure whether it was something either physical or mental.

“Why did you accept this job, father?”

Jeralt took a large sip of his drink, before his glass was placed on the table with a slight thud. “Because it’s for the best for the company. We need the money, and this job will give it to us.”

“But something about it doesn’t sit right with you?”

“… No. Don’t be silly, Byleth.”

The pair continued to drink in silence, until Byleth decided that she was going to retire for the night. She paid for her drinks, before persuading the bartender not to let Jeralt order and drink more alcohol than he already had done. She then left, unaware of the figures in the shadows who had been watching her and her father drink.

Jeralt sighed when he knew that Byleth had left, the main reason being that though she rarely showed emotion, Byleth was quite receptive to what he was feeling. Annoyingly though, he couldn’t tell her what was wrong. Though she was his daughter, she was his closest confidant, the one he can trust with anything he would tell her.

_But when her life was being dangled above his head like some sort of toy…? No, he couldn’t risk it._

When he had been given the night to think over accepting the job, he had been cornered on his way to the guest room he had been granted. Mysterious people in dark robes, and strange masks with hooked noses. They confronted him with secrets which he thought he had left behind, but what concerned him the most was their knowledge of Byleth.

They knew that she didn’t have a heartbeat. They knew that she had been used by the Archbishop whilst his wife died. They knew about the dreams she would have of a war – the war he believed was waged between Seiros and Nemesis – and of the green-haired girl he feared may have been the Goddess herself.

And they had threatened to harm her.

Jeralt knew that his daughter was more than capable of protecting herself, but the details which they went into saying what they would do to her made him see red, and kept him from sleeping that night. He may have had a duty as a mercenary, but his role of a father came first. And he had to protect his daughter.

Since that night, he had continued to barely sleep, only taking quick naps when he knew those people were not near him nor Byleth. But he would always fear that he would wake up at one point, and witness blood everywhere, and a gaping hole in his daughter’s chest where her heart should be. Or that for the first time, her face would be stained with tears, but only because he had not been there for her final moments. Even that he had been a failure, and allowed those people to do disgusting blood experiments upon her whilst his guard was down.

He took a long few gulps of his drink, his head feeling a bit fuzzy from the alcohol and lack of sleep. He had also noticed that those people had emerged from the shadows, and were stood behind him.

“I didn’t tell her.”

“We know you didn’t. But she was asking questions. Get her to stop, and we will leave her alone.”

“That wasn’t a part of the-!”

“If you want your daughter to live, you will get her to shut up and stop asking questions where she shouldn’t.”

His hand balled tightly into a fist. “_Fine.” _He stood up, slammed his gold down onto the table, and shook his head. “Stay the hell away from her.”


	6. Zanado

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth's dreams continue, and she decides that maybe she could confide in Jeralt about them.
> 
> The Golden Deer class go on their first excursion with Seteth as their professor, just for Claude to meet somebody he hoped he had seen the back of.

Byleth frowned when she woke up in the middle of the night, and decided that maybe she would go to talk with her father about the strange dream she had just had. Since they left Remire, she had been having dreams of either a floating green-haired child, or of a boy who wore a yellow cloak. At times, she would dream of both. But her most recent dream had been much clearer yet stranger than the others.

She had seen the same boy in yellow, but that time, he had been speaking to her despite no words leaving his mouth. They were stood in a place surrounded by cliffs and ruins, with a multitude of silhouettes both friendly and hostile. He had been standing with his hands behind his head, leaning back slightly as he spoke. She wished she knew what he was saying, as her lip-reading skills weren’t the best.

Once he finished speaking, everything around her shattered into a million pieces, and ended with the green-haired girl staring at her in the darkness, a hint of curiosity in her eyes as she leaned forward. The dream had ended with her saying one line – the only thing she had heard in her dream in its entirety.

“_My my, you are certainly taking your time to acknowledge my presence, Byleth...”_

By this point, both her and her father, as well as their mercenary group, had been in Gaspard territory for just a bit longer than a month, so she was used to the room which Jeralt slept in by this point. She never made her presence known either, as he said she could see him whenever she needed to.

When she opened the door though, she saw him slouched over a chair, fast asleep. Based on the shattered glass on the floor, and alcohol soaking the floorboards, he had clearly passed out rather than decide to rest. That was obvious, when considered alongside the fact that the past few weeks he had been constantly yawning and had dark rings around his eyes.

Silently she went over to him, carefully avoiding the glass before hoisting his arm over her shoulders so that she could pull him up and drag him over to the bed. As she did that, Jeralt quietly groaned and opened his eyes slightly.

“Kid… ‘s that you…?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re not… hurt?”

“No.”

“Good… don’t let them hurt you...”

Byleth helped Jeralt onto the bed, putting his mumblings about her getting hurt and ‘them’ who would hurt her down to the alcohol that was still in his system. “Stay there. I will get you some water and something to eat.”

Once she left the room though, she did feel strange. As though there was something or someone behind her, trying to watch her whilst keeping at a distance. She kept her hand on her dagger as a precaution just in case.

On her way to get the water for Jeralt though, she walked past a room which she believed was the study of Lord Lonato, and saw said lord in there with two young children. The little girl was sat on his lap, looking at a book in his hand and trying to read the words aloud. The boy was sat on another seat at the desk, scribbling on some parchment.

“You are getting good at reading… Ashe will certainly enjoy being able to read with you when he returns next.”

“When will Ashe come back, Lonato?”

“Soon, I am sure.”

For what may have been the first time, Byleth’s lip twitched upward slightly at the sight of something so… innocent. A far stretch from the life of battles and bloodshed she was used to as a mercenary.

Then she remembered that she was getting Jeralt some water. She wasn’t wanting to have a hung-over father at their daily training, he was impossible to deal with when he was.

* * *

* * *

“Ignatz, please do not get so distracted by our surroundings. This place is sacred, and we cannot afford to become distracted before the mission is completed. Not whilst there are bandits who dare to defile this land,” Seteth muttered, placing his hand on the shoulder of the Golden Deer who had started to fall behind the others as he tried to take in the scenery for future reference.

“I- I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, Seteth! I could just tell that there was something special about this place...”

“A good eye you have then, Ignatz. Though perhaps it would be best to use that eye on your archery – aside from Claude, you are one of the best in your class.”

“Understood...”

From where he was stood, near the front of the class, Claude still kept his distance from everyone else. The only person who had been able to get close enough to him to hold a full conversation was Hilda, but she was currently off with Marianne somewhere near the back of the group. He, meanwhile, was busy messing with one of his arrows, twirling it between his fingers.

He was proud of that arrow, but couldn’t dare brag about it to anyone. Poison tipped, where once it broke the skin, it would cause immediate pain before numbing the body and eventually causing unconsciousness. If Seteth heard that he was still dabbling in poisons after the mock battle from the previous month though, he would end up losing all privileges in his spare time, and wouldn’t be able to access any funds sent to him by his grandfather for use on equipment.

So, he just kept twirling it. It would be best to just save that for when absolutely necessary, and keeping it in his sight would be for the best.

“Whoa! That guy looks _mad_...” Raphael’s booming voice caught everyone’s attention as they finally made their way into a mostly-open area of Zanado. Seteth made his way to the front, before frowning at the sight of the bandits and their leaders.

Claude made his way to Seteth’s side, before his arrow clattered to the ground.

“That’s him… That’s the guy who led the bandits that almost killed me and the other house leaders...”

Now Claude wished that the poison on his arrow was made to kill.

* * *

* * *

Jeralt woke up once more, thankfully only with a small headache. He was glad that Byleth had gotten him that drink of water when she found him in a shamefully drunk state.

When he sat up, he noticed Byleth was also asleep on the bed, her head resting on his legs. He couldn’t help but laugh quietly to himself about that. Though she had rarely been emotional, she did show small attachments. When she was little, and received her first weapon (he had to admit – his judgement may not have been great there when it came to gifts for a five-year old girl) she never let it go. For that matter, that dagger was still with her. It may not have had any of the original parts of it left, but it was still her first weapon and she refused to let it go. She also had a tendency to sneak to him in the dead of night, and would fall asleep on his legs. A habit she never let go of.

Slowly, he shifted away from Byleth before making her lie down properly whilst he went to clean up the smashed-

He sighed when he realised that Byleth had also cleared up the smashed glass and spilled alcohol.

“Ugh...” Jeralt froze when he heard Byleth quietly groan. “Don’t… don’t get hurt… Claude...”

“Claude? Who the hell is that?” Then he stopped to think about what she had muttered in her sleep, to no avail. “I wish I knew what was going on in her head...”


	7. Goddess' intervention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude finds himself growing to dislike the coming mission for the Golden Deer class, especially because the adopted son of their target happens to be assisting the class for that moon.
> 
> Byleth's instincts are telling her that she is constantly being watched, though those instincts lead to her ending up in a precarious situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been wanting to write an update for this for a while now (it's been about 4 months!!!!) and finally I came up with an idea!!!

Claude was strolling past the cathedral when he overheard a quiet conversation taking place just beyond its doors. If there was anything which he liked to listen in to though, it was things that were secretive.

“But Mercedes… Seteth has asked that I help the Golden Deer this moon… I- I can’t…”

“Ashe… Please don’t worry. We will all be there for you when you need you…”

“But their mission is to fight against Lord Lonato! He- He’s my adoptive father…”

Mercedes gasped, her hands covering her mouth, before pulling Ashe into an almost motherly embrace. “Please don’t worry about the mission, Ashe… The mission may not involve fighting against him-“

“Seteth said… The mission was to do with suppressing a rebellion in Gaspard territory, led by Lord Lonato… I don’t think he will be allowed to- He may end up just like Christophe! My siblings and I have lost family too many times to count, and I don’t want them to go through with that again…”

At that point, Claude tensed up, and decided that he had done enough listening in there. He had been told that Ashe would be joining the Golden Deer mission for that moon, but it seemed beyond cruel to force him to participate in a mission which could end in his adoptive father’s imprisonment, or maybe even death… And he was very aware that the Church could do such things – after the encounter at the Red Canyon the previous week, the bandits there who had survived the battle had been sentenced to death… Rhea and Seteth had tried to hide it, but he overheard their conversation after the battle as he wanted to know as to how Seteth reported the encounter with the one who had injured himself and the other house leaders.

“Ah! Claude, perhaps Ashe can talk to you about his concerns! You are the leader of the house he is joining this moon, after all!” Before he could react, Claude had noticed that Mercedes had hold of his wrist, and was trying to get him to enter the cathedral to talk to Ashe.

_He had stood around lost in his thoughts for a moment too long._

* * *

* * *

Byleth had been noticing something unusual as the days went by in preparation for the final parts of the current job. She had noticed a few shady figures appearing in a variety of different places that she would normally visit, and they would always seem to be watching what she did.

There would be somebody staring at her from the kitchens. Somebody’s gaze was fixated on her on the courtyard set aside from training. She could feel a presence constantly behind her as she roamed Castle Gaspard’s halls. She even felt as though she was being monitored from what was _supposed _to be the private room she had been allowed to use during her time there.

Something about this, however, didn’t feel right to tell her father about. He had been on edge himself during their time preparing for this job, and she felt that it was not necessary to add more to his plate.

At present, she was busy training, and could yet again feel the strong gaze on her as she tried to focus on swinging her sword towards one of the dummies which had been set up. She was doing her best to ignore the constant monitoring, but it was… difficult. She didn’t feel much, but the behaviour or whoever this was happened to be was _really _grating on her nerves.

At one point, she did her best to shut it out, but it didn’t take too long to reach her breaking point. Or rather, the training dummy’s. She pursed her lips together as she narrowed her eyes, before swinging forward with as much force as she could muster. There was a brief flash in front of her just as her sword made contact with the dummy, before its vaguely body-shaped materials fell to the ground.

Byleth barely had a chance to react to what had just happened – in particular regarding the mystery flash of light – before she felt a hand around her throat. The presence behind her felt exactly like the one which had been keeping an eye on her from a distance.

Her reflexed kicked in before her thoughts, following exactly as Jeralt had taught her as a child – if she was grabbed from behind, she was to hurt the person as much as she could with either her foot or her elbow. Before her arm could make contact with the person though, the grasp of her throat tightened, making her wretch. “So… You are the one. The one with the lost crest. The one who is the so-called ‘Goddess’…”

“I don’t know what you a-ack-!” She tried to respond to the person, just to feel the hold tighten yet again. Her energy was waning at that point, and despite how much she wanted to fight the person off, she couldn’t.

“We did promise that as long as your father did as we asked him to, no harm would come to you… But now that our suspicions are confirmed, that isn’t possible any longer. You are much more useful to us than using that Lord to distract the ‘Church’… Much more. Or rather… your heart is much more useful to us.”

She felt helpless as she watched as the dagger around her waist was pulled out, and held directly in front of her chest. She tried to fight her way out of the grasp, but the lack of oxygen was making breathing hard – let alone moving.

Just before the blade pushed through her chest, she closed her eyes, knowing that it would be easier on herself to _not _watch herself be stabbed. But the pain she was expecting did not come, and the grasp of her neck seemed to have stopped too. She fell down to the ground and was gasping for breath, confused as to how she wasn’t currently bleeding out.

“I feel a strange sense that I should have said this earlier – _much _earlier – but I shall say it now anyway. Are you _trying _to get us both killed?!” As Byleth’s vision cleared up, the owner of the familiar yet unknown voice approached her – a fact that she only became aware of when she saw a bare pair of feet come into her line of sight. “Though I must applaud your instincts – those eyes upon you were not friendly. However, you were irresponsible, and allowed for those who wished to harm us to find a moment of weakness.”

“Us…? Harm… _us_…?” By that point, Byleth was able to pull herself into a sitting position on the ground, rather than hunched over as she attempted to breathe. “I… don’t know… I don’t know who…” She looked up, before her eyes widened. _It was the mysterious girl who kept appearing in her dreams._ “You… are…”

“You don’t know who I am?! Hmph, the insolence! You know very well who I am – we have met before, _Byleth,” _the girl muttered, folding her arms over and sighing. “But that is far from relevant right now. You are fortunate that the flow of time has stopped. If time were to resume from this point, that blade will pierce through your chest and bring you to an untimely end. There is but one way to avoid such a… violent demise.”

Byleth was puzzled, before saying the only thing which came to her head. She knew that it was impossible. “What, returning to an earlier point in time?”

“Precisely. Perhaps you are more intelligent than I was led to believe…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of fun writing Sothis... Dunno why... I like it when I can actually hear the lines in her voice in my head;;


	8. A Father's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Golden Deer class are on their way to battle against Lord Lonato and his rebellion, joined by none other than the lord's adoptive son, another father has made a difficult decision in order to protect his daughter from the threat against her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A slight bit dialogue heavy this chapter, but I've got a plan for the next one which I'm very excited to get down to writing! 
> 
> I feel so much more relaxed now that I'm getting back to writing again, and I can't wait to do some more!

Claude frowned as he watched Catherine walk ahead of the Golden Deer class, talking to Seteth about something. They were being awfully quiet, and the surroundings were a bit too foggy for him to attempt to lip-read. The only way he could really tell that they were even there was their faint silhouettes, the glow of Thunderbrand from Catherine’s side, and the tail of Seteth’s wyvern.

“Um… Claude… Can I speak with you about something?” His attention was drawn away from the pair by hearing a voice from behind him. “I… I don’t know if I can do this. I heard the report from the soldiers earlier, that we are going to have to fight against Lonato’s men, but…” Ashe stopped when he was by his side, before he took a loud shaky breath. “He is… He is my adoptive father, and I could never raise my bow to him! It’s just… It’s not right!”

Claude took a few steps forward. “It isn’t fair in the slightest. But… there is nothing we can do about it. We’re just students. Even if there were a peaceful way to deal with it…” His eyes fixated on Thunderbrand once more, before tapping his foot. “There would be those who would prefer a quicker way to deal with it.”

“… You’re right, but…”

“Ashe. As an honorary Golden Deer for this moon, I’ll look out for you as your house leader. You don’t have to raise your bow at anyone if you don’t want to, especially not at Lonato, and I’ll take the brunt of it if Seteth says you should do otherwise,” he stated, before glancing around. “Stick with Raphael, okay? He’s a good guy with a big heart, and will do what he can to keep you out of combat where necessary.”

“Claude… Thank you, that… That means an awful lot to me.”

He was then left alone, as Ashe went over to where Raphael was talking to Ignatz and Leonie, before taking one last glance at the pair who were leading the class. He couldn’t bear to tell Ashe that the orders the class had received were to kill Lonato, and he couldn’t quite believe that he was actually asked to tag along with this mission.

_Could the Church truly be more corrupt than they appeared, as per that book which Tomas had told him to keep hold of…?_

* * *

* * *

“Byleth. I need to tell you something, before we go into this battle… I can’t keep this quiet any longer.”

As she was busy checking that her armour was secure on her arms, Byleth heard Jeralt approaching her. She paused briefly as she heard his words, but continued what she was doing anyway, knowing that he would say what he needed to say.

“Kid, I… I need you not to join in this battle.”

That was enough to get her to stop what she was doing, and turn around to face him. He looked… sad. Almost desperate. His words sounded even more so. “We have been preparing for this for two months, Father… Why are you saying this now, on the day of our mission?” She walked over to him, noticing now that his hand was trembling slightly. “Father?”

Before Byleth could react, she found Jeralt’s arms around her, in a symbol of affection he hadn’t given her since she was a child. His hug felt both tight, but gentle enough for her to break out of if she wanted to. “I love you, kid… And I don’t want to lose you,” he whispered, before leaning close to her ear. “I need you to stay alive. The only way to do that is for you not to battle.”

“I’m a capable fighter-“

“I _know _that. But they are just as capable.”

“They… You’re talking about the people who have been following me around constantly, aren’t you?”

Jeralt tightened his grasp of Byleth, before taking a deep breath. “I never thought I would find myself saying this, as it just feels wrong after what happened to Sitri, but…” Byleth tensed up when she heard the rarely spoken name of her mother, it being an indication that Jeralt was clearly torn up about this decision. “You aren’t safe as a mercenary any longer. You need to go to the lesser of the evils… They may not be the most rational of people, but they will look out for you and protect you. Go to Garreg Mach Monastery, and ask for an audience with Archbishop Rhea of the Church of Seiros. Show her this ring and tell her that I told you to go there. Tell her that you have come seeking refuge, and that I will explain if or when I arrive there. Do not let her restrict your freedoms – make that perfectly clear – and if she does…” Jeralt’s eyes went over to her sword. “Let her know that.”

Once he had finished speaking, Byleth felt him press a kiss to the top of her head before he stepped back and pulled out a ring. “This was your mother’s ring… Protect it with your life.”

Byleth knew that she had never been good with emotions, but what he was saying was enough to stir some emotions in her. She could feel her mouth quivering, and her voice was even more hesitant. “And… And what will you be doing? And the rest of the company?”

“… We’re going to cover your back as you leave. Then we disband.”

“_No.”_

“Byleth, this isn’t a request. It’s an order,” Jeralt stated, his voice now turning to one which he would only use when a job was going south, and they needed to turn it around quickly. “As your leader, and as your father, I am telling you that you _are _leaving, and going to the Church of Seiros. It is the only way…”

As much as she wanted to retaliate with a reason for staying behind, Byleth just couldn’t think of one. She could already tell that Jeralt had strained himself enough to tell her to leave, and had spent hours forcing himself to accept that he would have to say goodbye to her. Instead of speaking, she simply turned around and grabbed hold of a bag containing her few belongings, and bit at her lip.

“Father… Promise me that you will find me after everything here is dealt with.”

“I promise.”

“… Good.” She stood up as she pulled her bag over her shoulder, then walked past him towards the door. “Father… I may not say this much, but… I love you.”

“I love you too, kid…”

Once Jeralt heard the sound of Byleth’s footsteps fade into nothingness, he finally felt a weight off his shoulders. There was still one there, at having sent Byleth to _that place_ without him, but he knew that at least she would be safe from those people who liked to hide in the shadows. Rhea was just one person – one threat. Those people, however… They were a whole other thing. And Byleth was safer with Rhea than having them stalking her as she goes about her life.

“… Now to find my men and get the hell out of here… No rebellion against the church is worth more than my daughter’s life. I’m sure that Lonato would understand.”


	9. Garreg Mach's gates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is trying to make her way to Garreg Mach, whilst Claude is trying to unravel the mysteries of the dead mercenaries found at the battlefield where he and his class fought against the Western Church.

“Clearly you’ve got a faulty map, lady. Garreg Mach monastery is right in the centre of Fódlan, where the Empire, Alliance, and Kingdom all meet. Right where that big blotch of ink is,” the man stood in front of Byleth stated, pointing to the middle of her map. “Now, I could… procure you a map _with _it on… But it’ll come at a price.”

Byleth noticed that he was starting to act suspicious when she saw his hands lower below his stall, which made her instinctively rest her hand on her dagger. She couldn’t lower her guard yet – not until she reached her destination, _and _had been reunited with her father. “What’s the price?”

“Oh, it’s quite simple… Your heart would be more than enough.”

She was glad of her decision to be wary then, as the man pulled out a dagger of his own instead of a map, and she had quickly stepped backwards to avoid being stabbed. The man falling to the ground gave her the opportunity to pull out her sword, and pointed it at his neck as he tried to get up. “My heart is off the table. Now, how about we try to reach a deal for a new map without spilling blood? If you don’t cooperate, I am fine with slicing your head off here and now.”

All colour drained from the man’s face as he felt the tip of her blade against his skin. “So this is why she is called the ‘Ashen Demon’…”

“Well?” Byleth was surprised at her own restraint as she waited for the man to respond, but she received her answer when she saw him begin to mutter under his breath as dark magic began to appear around his hands.

She didn’t know how to feel as she watched his blood begin to seep between the stones paving the road, but one thing she was certain of was that this man was a supposed ‘connoisseur of maps’, and he did seem to know everything she needed… That meant that he possibly had something to do with maps behind his stall.

Avoiding the blood, so as not to get it under her shoes and leave a trail leading directly to her, she went over and faintly smiled when she saw exactly as she needed. A full map of Fódlan, without Jeralt’s little edits to avoid the past.

From what she had heard from a villager, she was near to Charon territory… A place fortunately quite close to the centre of Fódlan. Now that she had this new map, she could finally plot out a route to Garreg Mach Monastery. As she looked at the map, she felt a slight sense of relief. She would likely need to find another village to stay for the night, but aside from that, if she left a little before the break of dawn, she would arrive by no later than mid-morning of the next day.

* * *

* * *

“It looks almost as though two separate fights were going on at once… Some of these bodies are mercenaries injured by dark magic, and not weapons, unlike Lonato’s men…” Catherine muttered, looking around as she knelt by one of the victims of the battle. Claude walked over to the body of another, noticing something else on the bodies on the battlefield.

He reached over to the belt of the one on the ground beside him, and pulled the parchment out. He then opened it, and frowned. There were definitely two battles going on at once. He felt sickened as he read through it.

> _Sorry for giving this task under the table, but it is the only way to get it across to all of our men without rousing suspicion. _
> 
> _There are some people who have wormed their way into Lonato’s ranks who have been watching us since we arrived in Gaspard territory. They want to kill Byleth, for reasons which I can’t disclose at this point. Our job has changed. Byleth will be escaping at sunrise on the day of the battle, and we will be keeping them occupied as the Western Church starts their fight against the Central Church. We need to give her enough time to get clear of this place, and start making her way to Garreg Mach Monastery. _
> 
> _Once the battle is over, I am leaving our group to join her in safety. You all may decide to continue without mine or my daughter’s leadership, or you can disband. I leave that choice to you._
> 
> _Jeralt_

Claude tensed up as he read it, before quickly stashing away the note with his arrows and joining the other Golden Deer who were regrouping to return to Garreg Mach. He didn’t know who this Byleth the note was talking about, but he was certainly going to have to keep an eye out once he returned to see if he can find out more about the tragedy which happened that day…

* * *

* * *

Byleth had used the last of her funds (most of which scavenged from the body of her assailant) to rent a room in an inn in a different village to rest for the night. She had been on her feet all day, and was quite relieved to have a place to rest and relax.

As a precaution, when she entered her room, she used the key she had been given to lock the door, before using a chair to create a barricade against it. She also made sure the windows were locked, before drawing the curtains.

That was followed by a small sigh of relief as she pulled her boots and armour off her body. She had been expecting to wear them into battle that morning, and not to be on the run from people who had some sort of bizarre fixation on her heart.

_She didn’t even know if she had one. She never felt it beating once – there had been many an occasion she had been pronounced dead as a result of that, even though if the person had checked her pulse they would have said otherwise._

For a few minutes, she debated the risks of staying awake for the night, before settling with going to sleep with easily accessible weapons for if her barricades were broken through.

When sleep took over, she found herself in one of her unusual dreams once more. It started with one of the typical ones – the woman fighting in a war, and stabbing a man over and over until she picked up a weapon and embraced it, calling it ‘Mother’.

The next one was new.

She was in a room, not too different to her current room in the inn. It had a comfortable looking bed, a desk, a closet, and a bulletin board. Basic, but it appeared to be expensive. There was also blood on the rug on the floor, the red looking quite unsightly compared to its yellow fibres.

Her hand was holding onto her side, with blood between her sides. Visibly she was wounded, but she couldn’t feel it. The injury had been caused by a person using her own dagger against her, and they were slowly getting closer and closer to her. She could also see the time-altering girl with green hair trying to push the person away, though she just kept phasing through them.

Once backed against the wall, Byleth watched as her own weapon, a gift from her father, was held against her chest. _It was one of those people who wanted her heart. _Even though she could hear the girl shouting not to give in and to get away from them, she couldn’t. Her feet felt cemented to the floor.

She was stuck.

She was going to die.

But the killing blow never came.

Instead, she heard the familiar noise of arrows being let loose from a bow. Her eyes widened as she saw the arrows impaling the person in front of her, and the dagger falling to the ground. That was followed by the person being shoved to the side, and a pair of arms around her shoulders.

“Byleth! I’m glad that you’re okay! You didn’t show up for our training session, so I knew that something had to be going on… You weren’t hurt, were you?”

Her eyes went up from the dagger on the floor, and began to focus on the person in front of her. It was… _It was him_. The boy in yellow who has been in all of her other recent dreams.

* * *

* * *

Claude could barely sleep upon returning to Garreg Mach, following the day’s events. In the dining hall, at dinner, he decided to speak to Dimitri about him and his classmates taking care of Ashe. He had been in quite a state once he found out that Lonato had been killed during the battle, and as such, needed as much support as he could. He could tell that family meant a lot to him, and losing a parent for the second time must have been one of the most difficult things he could have had to go through.

He also had the delights of an audience with Rhea and Seteth to discuss everything which had happened during the battle, which he presumed would be used as evidence against the captured Western Church followers. He also found out that the Church also liked to carry out executions for those who had strongly opposing views, which… didn’t sit too well with him. He knew for certain that he would have to keep his lack of belief in the Church under wraps during his time at the Academy.

Then, of course, this was the one night where there was that much on his mind, he couldn’t sleep. He believed he was quite fortunate to not have to be attending any classes for a few days, as was usual following a mission, because that allowed him to take the opportunity to rest as and when he needed… so long as Seteth wasn’t making him carry out tasks around the monastery.

Before he knew it, dawn had broken, and he realised that he likely wasn’t going to be getting sleep at any point soon. He knew it wasn’t good, and that somebody was likely to have a lecture lined up for him about sleeping properly, but it wasn’t as though he could do anything like that whilst his mind was so active and cluttered.

He decided to go to the dining hall, and see if he could get a drink. Despite the national dislike for the Almyrans, he was very relieved that his favourite tea was available in the dining hall. It was one of those ‘comforts of home’ things which people would go on about, and it certainly helped him feel more relaxed than his thoughts were allowing him.

As he sat at one of the tables, drinking his tea and eating some of the toast which was available, he hadn’t been expecting somebody to sit directly opposite him, or to tap on the table to get his attention.

“Claude. I have a few questions for you about the Golden Deer’s mission yesterday…”

His eyes went up, and he noticed that Edelgard was there, with her own drink and food, staring with an intensity in her eyes that he had last saw…. Perhaps on the day that the two of them (and Dimitri) had been attacked by those bandits.

“Ah, Princess, how lovely of you to join me this morning-“

“Stop with the formalities, I just want to have a simple conversation.”

“Noted…” He closed his eyes as he stretched his arms up, mostly to conceal his eye roll at her request for a ‘simple conversation’. From the few months he had known her, it was never just ‘simple’. There was almost _always _something more. “So… What is it that you want to talk about?”

Edelgard took a sip of her drink, and delicately placed it down as she straightened her face. “I heard rumours… That an entire mercenary group had been slaughtered during the battle against Lord Lonato and his followers, but not as a result of battle against the Church… Do you know anything about this?”

Claude raised an eyebrow, surprised at how fast details such as that spread around. “I do know a bit, but we were ushered away from the battlefield not long after they were discovered.”

“Please tell me what you know.”

He sighed, and took another bite of his toast. “Well, your lack of reason why you are asking this is suspicious, but I suppose I can… The mercenaries were trying to protect one of their group, and were killed using dark magic, not weapons.”

Edelgard brought her hand to her mouth, not through shock, but so she could think over what had been said. “That is… Certainly a disturbing matter. Is there nothing more which you know about it?”

“No. As I said, we were sent away when all this started to come to light,” he stated, before finishing his drink and rising to his feet. “Anyway… I have to go now. I have some work which I need to get finished before classes resume again, and I would rather not go through a punishment created by Seteth again.” He quickly took his dishes to be cleaned, and got out of the dining hall as fast as he could.

He wasn’t too sure about why Edelgard had decided to talk to him instead of the knights who had been present about the other battle which had taken place, but he certainly wasn’t going to let her know about all the details which had been on that note he had found. He wanted to find those answers for himself before he told anything else to anyone.

His main priority though, was finding out who this ‘Byleth’ person was. Once he found them, it wouldn’t take long for the rest of the situation to unfold quite neatly.

What he knew was that they had been told to go to Garreg Mach, and that they had left on the morning that the battle began. It likely wouldn’t be long until they arrived. The only reason that him and his fellow classmates had returned so soon after the battle was due to the use of mounts which they had been told to use. It was likely that this Byleth would be coming by foot, which takes longer.

After a moment of deliberating with himself, he settled on finding a comfortable space near the marketplace to keep an eye out on the gate. He could probably run the gatekeeper out of a job, with how intensely he was looking at everyone who passed through the gates. He had a faint idea what he would be looking out for, and wrote down a list.

One – strong mercenary vibes. Carrying a weapon, and had the appearance of somebody who had seen battle many times.

Two – female. He had picked up that ‘Byleth’ was also the ‘daughter’ which had been written about in the note.

Three – cautious-looking. After all, who _wouldn’t _look at everything with a wary eye if their life were on the line?

He just had to wait for Byleth to make her appearance…

* * *

* * *

Byleth didn’t know how she felt when she reached the gates and walls of Garreg Mach. She didn’t feel much anyway, but with what she _did _feel was very conflicted as she looked at the towering buildings before her. It was both familiar yet a foreign place, and she knew that she would be safe there, yet also in danger.

She almost didn’t want to go in, but she knew that it was for the best, if what her father had told her was true.

Slowly, she brought her hand up to a chain around her neck, which now had her mother’s ring attached to it. She had found the chain in one of the drawers of her inn room from that night, presumably left behind by one of the previous occupants. She had asked the kind old lady who owned the inn who it belonged to, but was told that she should keep it. As such, she knew that she could keep the ring safe on that chain… especially if it was the key to getting an audience with the Church’s Archbishop.

After a deep breath, she stepped through the gate, and was instantly taken aback at the sight of the bustling marketplace. However, that feeling quickly turned to an unsettled one when she felt that same feeling she had the entire time she had been in Gaspard territory. _She was being watched._

Unlike other times she had been watched though, she could tell which direction it was coming from. It was from… directly in front of her.

“Excuse me for the sudden question, but… You don’t happen to be ‘Byleth’, do you?”

She found herself eye-to-eye with the boy in yellow from her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll find out more about what happened with Jeralt's side of things next chapter~


	10. Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Jeralt whilst Byleth escaped to Garreg Mach?
> 
> The scene Claude and Byleth cause in the marketplace lead to a chain reaction of events.

The battle against those who were wanting to take Byleth’s life had been difficult from the start. One advantage that the opponents had was the fog which they had brought over the land. It was presumed to be there to protect those following the Western Church from the fighters who had arrived from the Central Church, but the lowered visibility also had an impact on this fight. Another advantage was that these people would use magic a majority of the time – over half of those standing alongside Jeralt to cover his daughter’s escape were wiped out within minutes.

“Captain! What do we do?!” One of the current survivors shouted out, not realising that they were stood mere metres from Jeralt because of the fog. “We can’t see anything! We can barely move without tripping over someone or something!”

Jeralt muttered a few swears under his breath, before taking a deep sip of the drink in his flask. He had forgotten that he had filled it with alcohol at an earlier point, to give himself the confidence to tell Byleth to leave. He then shook his head in annoyance before giving his response. “Hold your positions! Make it so that nobody can get past you – not even another of our men!”

His hand tightened around his lance as he began to listen to his surroundings, attempting to figure out if any of their opponents were nearby. It didn’t help that he could hear the distant fighting of the other battle which Lonato was leading against the Church.

_If he hadn’t have found out the plot to kill Byleth… he would have been participating in that fight. And Byleth would have been…_

He shook his head again, trying to get those images out of his head. He had been plagued enough over these recent weeks of visions of finding Byleth’s corpse desecrated in their attempt to take her heart.

Suddenly, he heard somebody approaching him, the dull noise of wet grass being ran across alerting him to their presence. He braced himself to attack one of those vile dark mages, but instead… found himself looking at a girl, not much younger than Byleth.

“E- Excuse me sir!” She panicked as she found herself at the end of Jeralt’s lance, and raised her hands quickly. “I didn’t mean to alarm you! I- I was just looking for help to reunite me with my classmates!”

He frowned as he looked at the girl, noticing that she was wearing the uniform of an Officer’s Academy student. The Officer’s Academy ran by the Church of Seiros… based at Garreg Mach. The place he had sent Byleth to.

“We were brought along to fight against Lord Lonato and the Western Church, and I got separated from my classmates…”

His previous words were ringing through his head. _Make it so that nobody can get past you – not even another of our men._

“P- Please sir, I’ll even drop my weapon!” She then released her grasp of the jagged looking dagger in her hand.

He had made up his mind by that point. “Sorry, kid. I’ve got my own battle to do here. Your battle is somewhere over there.” He made a vague gesture with his lance, and gritted his teeth as the fog slowly began to lift.

_It was finally his chance to fight against those people who wanted his daughter dead._

“But sir… I can’t help but notice that your daughter isn’t here. Where is she?”

His attention snapped right back at the girl, and the point of his lance was now pressed right against her throat. “Far, _far _away from here… You’re not an Officer’s Academy student either. Who are you?” He muttered, his anger starting to get the better of him.

“Well… It doesn’t really matter anymore. We’re going to find her eventually… And you may be the perfect way to get to her.”

Before Jeralt could react, the girl had darted away from his lance and had retrieved her dagger from the ground.

That was followed with a hard hit to the back of his head, sending him crashing to the ground.

“Out like a light… Shame, I would have hoped somebody dubbed as ‘The Blade Breaker’ would’ve had more of a fight in him.”

* * *

* * *

“H- Hey, no need to cause a scene…” Claude muttered, awkwardly laughing as he raised his hands, finding himself at the end of Byleth’s sword. “I didn’t mean to scare you-“

“You… Who are you and why do you keep appearing? How do you know my name?” She muttered, keeping her blade firmly in position as the crowds in Garreg Mach’s marketplace backed away from the situation. There were many whispers – most of which asking, ‘_What has Claude gotten himself into now?’ _

Claude had no idea how what she meant by ‘why do you keep appearing’, and didn’t necessarily want to answer the ‘how do you know my name’ question in public. He kept quiet, and kept his arms raised as he took a step back. “I promise, I didn’t mean to-!”

“_What _is going on here, Claude?”

Byleth pursed her lips together as a green-haired man made his way through the crowds, and appeared behind the boy who kept appearing in her dreams. She kept her sword steady and her eyes remained focussed on the one she was pointing it at.

“May you please lower your weapon, miss? This is no place for violence of any sort. May I also ask as to what provoked you into drawing your weapon on Claude here?”

She frowned as the new man spoke to her, but she still did as he asked and sheathed her sword. “I came here because my father told me to speak with the Archbishop, and as I arrived, this boy appeared, and he somehow knew my name. I don’t know him though.”

The man sighed, and shook his head. “You can’t keep yourself away from trouble, can you, Claude?” He then ran his hand through his hair, before speaking once more. “Please go to the Golden Deer classroom and we shall have a word once I speak to this lady about her request to see the Archbishop.”

Claude sighed, fully aware that yet another punishment was likely heading his way. He hoped that this time it wouldn’t be polishing floors, and maybe something more along the lines of a detention for a week or so. It wasn’t as though he caused _much _of a commotion, other than bringing the marketplace to a standstill for a short while after accidentally scaring her.

“Follow me, I should be able to assist you with what you came here for,” the man then stated, gesturing for Byleth to follow him. She hesitated for a moment, but began to trail along when she noticed the marketplace begin to return to normality. She felt somewhat safer due to the numbers of people around.

Once away from the marketplace, and inside an extensive looking hall, the man stopped and turned to face her. “Apologies, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Seteth, and my main role here is as advisor to the Archbishop, meaning that if you wish to speak with Lady Rhea, your request will have to go through me first. She is unfortunately rather occupied at present, following on from a situation a few days ago.”

“Would you happen to be talking about Lord Lonato’s rebellion against the Church?” She asked, watching as his eyes widened. “I came here from there…”

Seteth seemed highly concerned at what she said, before he gestured for her to continue following. “Before I ask any questions about why you wish to have an audience with Lady Rhea, may I ask what your name is?”

“… Byleth,” she stated, before realising he was asking about her full name as she saw him raise his eyebrow. “Byleth Eisner.”

He nodded, before asking his next question. “Why did your father wish for you to have an audience with Lady Rhea?”

Byleth paused for a moment, resting her hand against the ring around her neck, before quickly picking up her pace to catch up with him. “I was in danger, but he said that I would be safe at Garreg Mach if I spoke with the Archbishop. He said that he would come here to explain at a later point… But it depends on whether he survived the battles that were going on in Gaspard territory. He and the other mercenaries we travelled with stayed behind so that I could come here.”

Seteth nodded, before he came to a stop once more. “I shall have a word with Lady Rhea to see if it is possible for her to speak to you. It may not be possible for her to speak today, however. If you wait in the Cathedral across the bridge, I shall return when I have an answer for you.” He pointed down the bridge which was through a set of doors they were stood by, before walking away.

For a moment, Byleth was hesitant. She didn’t wish to wait – she just wanted to know if she could safely stay here or not. However, if she _had _to wait, that is what she would do. She couldn’t just make them ignore their system just because her father had told her to speak to the Archbishop. She slowly walked across the bridge, taking in the cool breeze which was blowing at her hair.

On her way to the cathedral, she couldn’t help but notice that quite a few people about were wearing similar clothes – a uniform of sorts. Then she remembered Seteth telling that ‘Claude’ to wait in a classroom, which led her to the conclusion that there was a school located on Garreg Mach’s grounds.

When inside, she sat at the end of one of the nearest pews to the door, and began to look around. It was so intricately decorated, and unlike anything she had ever seen before. She certainly felt that she didn’t belong here, but at the same time… It felt so familiar.

“_So… You feel the same about this place?” _The voice of the girl with the green hair echoed around her, before she suddenly appeared beside her, floating in the air. “_So familiar… But why is it? I do not recall being here before now. Neither do you – your father kept you far, far away from this place…”_

She slowly nodded, before closing her eyes and tilting her head downward. She wished that she knew why her father had kept her far away from this place, to the point of doctoring a map to hide its existence from her, before changing his mind when she was in danger. She also wished that he could have come with her, but there is nothing that could be done about that now.

Moments turned into minutes, and eventually almost half an hour had passed. She felt almost on the verge of falling asleep, until a voice called out for her attention.

“_Get up! Seteth is returning, and it appears that he has company!”_

Byleth tensed up for a moment, before standing up and stretching her slightly aching legs. When she finished that, she could hear the footsteps across the marble floor, heading in her direction. She turned around, and as she had been told, Seteth was there, accompanied by a woman adorned in a white dress and lillies.

“It appears that your story caught Lady Rhea’s attention, Byleth. She has decided to come here to speak to you,” Seteth stated, what he said taking a moment to sink in.

_That fancy looking lady was the Archbishop._

The lady took a few steps forward, and stopped when about a metre away from her. “Good afternoon, Byleth… You are… Jeralt’s daughter, yes?” she asked, before a sad smile formed on her face. “It is wonderful to see the child of an old friend… Even under the unfortunate circumstances which brought you here.”

Byleth nodded slowly, before asking a question which came to her head as a result of her words. “You were friends with my father?”

“Yes… He saved my life many years ago, and was a Knight of Seiros for a time. He left following the death of his wife…” Rhea explained, before noticing the ring around Byleth’s neck. “I see that he has entrusted you with her ring.”

Byleth’s hand crept up and took hold of the ring for a moment, before closing her eyes. “He says that he will arrive here at a later point to explain why he sent me here.”

“So I heard. You have come here for safety from those who wish harm upon you, correct? If that is the case, then I can provide you with the protections which you seek,” Rhea began, before noticing that Byleth was about to speak up in response to that. “I can tell that he would have told you that he wanted for you to not be placed in the protective custody of the Church, and instead be allowed the freedoms to live a normal life, but to be kept safe from those who wish you harm. I can arrange for that to be the case, but there would have to be conditions.”

At this point, Seteth decided to step in. “Lady Rhea, this hasn’t been discussed yet… We cannot just-!”

“Seteth… She is the daughter of my friend, and I have seen him experience enough tragedy in his life already. I shall keep his daughter safe,” Rhea smiled, before once more turning to Byleth. “Seteth has two roles at present. One is as my advisor, the other is as a professor at the esteemed Officer’s Academy also located here at Garreg Mach. The condition for your protection is that you enrol as a student in the Officer’s Academy, as a student in the class which Seteth teaches. He can protect you, and in turn, you can develop your skills to keep yourself safe from those who wish to cause you harm.”

* * *

* * *

Claude had been growing bored waiting in the Golden Deer classroom. He had no clue as to how long he had been waiting for to receive his punishment for causing a _slight _ruckus, but the waiting had felt like punishment enough.

He was close to just walking out and returning to his room by the point that the classroom doors finally opened, and _finally, _Seteth arrived… Trailed by Byleth.

For a moment, he covered his face in disbelief. _He brought her here to watch as he handed out his punishment? Great…_

“I apologise for the wait, Claude, but there have been more pressing matters to deal with than the consequences of the scene you caused in the marketplace with Byleth. Fortunately, an opportunity has presented itself for you to redeem yourself. Lady Rhea has asked that Byleth enrol as a student in the Golden Deer class. As the house leader, it falls upon your shoulders to provide her with a tour of the Academy, introduce her to the other students, and assist her in catching up on what we have already covered this year,” Seteth explained.

Claude gulped, before his eyes locked with Byleth. He tried to see if he could tell what she thought of the situation, but… he saw nothing. She felt… absolutely nothing. Her eyes gave nothing away.

“First, however, you can show her to her room. It is the one closest to the sauna and training grounds on the lower floor,” he stated, before giving Byleth a key to the room. “Now, if you need me, I shall be found in my office…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must confess, I was inspired by the comment made by valeria1314151611 for chapter 8 to make Byleth a student so... Byleth is gonna be a student!


	11. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude has the opportunity to show Byleth the note which he found on the body of one of her former mercenary allies.
> 
> Byleth finds out through Dimitri about something which happened a few months earlier.

Claude had been watching the new member of the Golden Deer quite closely ever since she joined the class. She showed very little emotion, but an awful lot of skill. It had started with Raphael asking for her to show how strong she was in the training grounds. That then led to Felix appearing and challenging her to a swordfight. There were many other challengers, and she won against all but one person – Leonie. Even then, it ended in a draw. Leonie had said that her fighting style seemed familiar to someone she had apprenticed under, which is why things had reached a stalemate.

He also couldn’t help but notice that the other two house leaders had expressed an interest in Byleth. He could see Hubert spying from a distance in a similar manner to himself, presumably for Edelgard, whilst Dimitri had been a bit more upfront and kept sitting with her at mealtimes.

Fortunately, Claude was able to spend the most time with her, thanks to his punishment from Seteth. As much as he wasn’t happy with it at first, he grew to enjoy the situation. Even if the main reason for him seeing her more often was to help her cover what they had already done that year.

“Really? This is the stuff that you have to cover?” Byleth asked, shaking her head and folding her arms over as she looked at the textbook between the two of them. “This is basic combat. My father taught me this when I was quite young…” She then pursed her lips together, and began to look through the next few pages as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Then again, these books were probably never written with the intention of the likes of a mer- former mercenary to read through it.”

Claude watched on in curiosity as she closed the book, then turned her attention towards the window.

Eventually, a very slight frown formed on her face. “I hope that he arrives here soon…”

“He? Are you talking about your father? You’ve mentioned him a few times now.”

Byleth tapped her fingers against the desk, then nodded. “Yes,” she answered, before glancing at Claude as he leaned in slightly. “What are you wanting to know about him? Clearly something is on your mind.”

He raised his eyebrow at how she had been able to quickly figure out that he had been wanting to ask something. “Well, seeming as you mentioned it… Your father is the famous ‘Blade Breaker Jeralt’, isn’t he?”

She stared at him in silence, then nodded. “People call him that, yes. But how did you know that? I haven’t told anybody, and the only people in Garreg Mach who know are the Archbishop and Seteth,” she stated, her eyes beginning to narrow. “For that matter, you knew my name when I got here, despite me having never met you in person before then. How do you know all of these details about us?”

Claude remained quiet for a moment, before pulling out a folded piece of paper. “You came here from Gaspard territory, right? On the day that Lord Lonato held his rebellion against the Church. Well… The Golden Deer class had been sent to help out there when it happened. We fought against Lonato’s men, but in the aftermath, found out that another battle had taken place at the same time… We found the bodies of what appeared to be almost a whole band of mercenaries, and I found this on one of them. I deduced from this note everything that you have found suspicious that I knew.” He placed the paper on the table, and pushed it over towards her.

She slowly reached out for the paper, and unfolded it to read it. It was then that Claude witnessed one of her first shows of emotion, as her hand started shaking as her mouth fell open slightly. She then placed the paper down, and sighed. “Claude… Do you mind if I keep this?”

“Go ahead. You deserve to know what happened that day more than I do.”

“… Thank you.”

* * *

* * *

Byleth had been avoidant of going to sleep since her arrival at Garreg Mach. There were many reasons behind it – the belief that those people after her heart could be hidden anywhere, the possibility that her father could arrive at any point, and the worry that Claude would keep appearing in her dreams.

After first meeting Claude, she had been highly suspicious of him. After finding out about how he knew certain things about her, she had found herself able to be somewhat more relaxed around him. But something still bothered her about him that made her want to keep him at an arm’s distance and no closer… Why had he been showing up in her dreams before she had even met him?

It was a question she had been unable to answer, and was also one which she wanted to get out of her head.

One which she knew she could temporarily get out of her head with a training session. When something wouldn’t normally get out of her head in the past, she would always ask her father to train with her. It would be different not having him to train with, but based on what she saw when Claude had given her a tour of Garreg Mach, there was an incredible looking training ground which was available for use.

She crept out of her dorm room, and straight away felt a cool breeze against her skin. She also noticed that her surroundings were very quiet. For a place so busy during the day, it was very strange seeing it almost abandoned.

After a moment of looking around, she then began to make her way towards the training grounds, happy that the entrance to it was visible from her room’s doorway. She had expected to be on her own when she got there, but was surprised at hearing the noise of somebody practicing.

She was silent as she slipped past the doors, and then stood partially behind one of the pillars as she watched the person move their lance with swift yet brutal movements. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was Dimitri who was training, as in the dim light of the surroundings she could see his blue cloak moving as he did.

Moments later, Dimitri stopped what he was doing, and sighed as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

It was at this point that she emerged from the sidelines. “I’ve never seen somebody use a lance how you do, Dimitri. You put all of your strength behind each movement you make, rather than relying on things such as length of the weapon or distance, and other factors like gravity…” Byleth noted, surprising the prince as she approached him from behind.

“Oh! Byleth, I did not see you there,” he said, turning around to face her. “You are right about how I use my weapon. It is how those in my family who possess the crest of Blaiddyd tend to use a lance due to its effect on our strength…” He looked at the lance in his hands, before a small smile formed on his face. “I do attempt to use it in other ways, however…” he gestured over to a small pile of broken wooden lances to the side. “They tend to break.”

She nodded at what he said, before walking over to the rack of weapons and picking up a wooden sword. “Feel free to say no if you wish, Dimitri… But may I spar with you? I’d love to see your unique method of fighting first-hand.”

“Hmm… If you wish. I am curious about the skill which was able to beat even Felix in a sword fight.”

The pair then stood opposite each other, holding onto their weapons. “On the count of three?” Byleth asked, adjusting her grip of her sword and moving one of her feet back slightly. Upon Dimitri nodding, she nodded back and began to count. “One… Two… Three-!”

She was caught by surprise at him moving almost as soon as she reached three, and very quickly she had to get into a defensive stance when his lance repeatedly made contact with her sword. She could definitely pick up on the strength which he put behind each of his swings.

After a few moments, she noticed that Dimitri seemed to hesitate after a few of his blows, and had to briefly stop to stretch his fingers. She took that opportunity to go on the offensive, and swung her sword repeatedly to force him to step back and create some distance between them.

Dimitri narrowed his eyes, and then decided to thrust forward with the lance as a way to avoid her sword swings. She narrowly avoided the wood jabbing into her stomach by jumping to the side, and went to slash at him. He quickly raised his arm to defend himself, and her sword came into contact with his wrist. She saw his eyes widen in shock before his lance fell to the ground.

It took a moment for her to realise what happened, and she lowered her weapon. “You’ve been injured recently, haven’t you?” She whispered, gently taking hold of his hand and placing her hand on the wrist she had struck. “I’m sorry. If I had known I wouldn’t have asked to fight against you…”

He shook his head, and gave her a reassuring smile. “It was a short while ago that I got this injury. I have been told by Professor Manuela that I could start training again over recent days and to keep doing stretches to help the recovery. It isn’t your fault; I just may need to rest it for a few more days.”

Byleth bit her lip, but nodded anyway. “If you say so. But… Only if you are comfortable with me asking this… How did you injure your arm?”

He diverted his eyes away from her and his arm, and took a deep breath. “Many weeks ago, around the 20th of the Great Tree Moon… Claude, Edelgard, and myself were on a ‘house leaders only’ mission with the person who was supposed to be a professor for the Golden Deer house… We were attacked by bandits, and the three of us were left to fend for ourselves after that person abandoned us. Claude made a ‘tactical retreat’ as he called it, so Edelgard and I followed… But we were eventually caught up to and badly injured by the bandits near to Remire Village in the Kingdom…” He trailed off when he saw her eyes widen in shock. “Byleth?”

She let go of his hand, and shook her head and covered her face. “I’m… I’m sorry…” With that, she ran out of the training grounds, leaving the prince stood there in confusion at her reaction and apology.

In a panic, she ran into her room and locked the door behind her, and went straight over to her desk, where she had a journal that she kept with her through her mercenary days. She flipped back to the entries she made in the Great Tree Moon.

She then reached the page and entry she was looking for, and slammed her fist into the wood of the desk.

_20th of the Great Tree Moon. Left Remire Village for our next job._

“I knew it…” she muttered, sitting down on the chair at the desk and running her hands through her hair. “I knew that we shouldn’t have left Remire that day…”


	12. What is to come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth tells Claude something which has been bothering her, now that she has spent almost four weeks in the Officer's Academy.   
She also finds out about something which was to happen in two days time.

Much to her surprise, Byleth found herself growing closer to Claude as the Blue Sea Moon passed. She had found herself able to divulge more about her past to him, though not too much detail. She could tell that he was good at keeping secrets, but he was clearly analysing every single thing which she told him.

Despite all that, she appreciated him listening to her. Aside from her father, she had never really had anyone to talk to about anything. She had a slight feeling that it may have been due to her stories coming from the point of view of somebody who was raised in isolation from the Church of Seiros, whilst everyone else had the Church influence their lives in some way or another.

“There’s one other thing which I haven’t told you, Claude…” Byleth stated, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her head as she was finishing her final catch-up assignment with Claude’s assistance. After this point, she would be up to date with the rest of the Golden Deer, and no longer would the pair have to remain behind after classes each day as per Seteth’s orders. “This may sound awfully cliché, but I swear to you that this is the truth.”

Claude leaned in, and raised his eyebrow at her words. “Do go on, Byleth. I’m listening, and after that, I’ll be expecting my birthday gift from you,” he grinned, before receiving a glare from him. “H- Hey, I’m kidding about the gift part, I’ve found your tales from travelling as a young mercenary more than enough of a gift.”

She sighed, before placing her pen down and tapping her fingers on the desk. “I found out from Dimitri about two weeks ago that the two of you, and Edelgard, were injured near to Remire village almost three moons ago… Well, no less than an hour before you were attacked, the mercenary company were in Remire. And I had felt a nagging feeling that we needed to stay there a little longer, but I never knew why…” She began, looking as his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to say something, but he chose to remain silent. “Since that day, I was plagued with strange dreams. One of which revolving around a boy who wore yellow – namely a yellow cloak over his left shoulder. I must confess… that is one of the reasons why I reacted as I did when you spoke to me when I arrived here. I was scared that a person who I had only dreamt about before that point _actually _existed.”

Claude took a deep breath, before leaning back against the desk, using his elbows for support. “Wow… That’s a lot to unpack there,” he laughed quietly, before smiling. “Well, first of all, I can say that it’s not your fault that us house leaders got hurt, you hear me? We never told you that we were going to get attacked by bandits outside the village – we didn’t even know you then, or knew that we were going to be attacked at that point,” he reassured, before closing his eyes. “But that thing about the dreams… I believe you. You don’t come across as a person who would lie, especially about something as… peculiar as that. Also, lucky for you, I don’t have a Sylvain-esque personality. Otherwise I’d be throwing myself all over you, calling myself the ‘man of your dreams’ or something like that.”

A small noise came out of Byleth as she smirked at what he said about Sylvain. Claude smiled at that, as the otherwise dark and serious look on her face had started to ease, as well as because of her being a bit more open with her emotions with him.

“I’ve already had to shut him down multiple times since I got here… I can imagine him doing that,” she laughed, standing up and placing the finished assignment onto Seteth’s desk for him to collect later that day. “However, I can also imagine you doing that, just… in a much more sarcastic manner.”

He stood up, and pretend gasped in response. “Oh Byleth, I am wounded that you would say something like that about _the man of your dreams!”_ He ironically whined, throwing his arm over her shoulders when he walked over to her. “Like that?

“Yes, Claude. Exactly like that.”

The two then left the Golden Deer classroom, with Byleth stretching her arms in the air as soon as outside. The skies were clear, the sun was warm, and there were still a few hours until the sun was to set. They both knew that it would be a perfect day to waste some time, or get some preparation done for the monthly class mission in two days… Except for one thing.

They could both see Rhea approaching them.

It was easy to figure out that she was coming to speak to Byleth, so Claude sighed and rested his hand on her shoulder. “See you later, yeah? There’s something I need your help with later. Meet me in that little gap between your dorm room and the stairs leading to the sauna a few minutes after the curfew.”

She frowned and nodded, before turning her attention back towards the Archbishop.

“Good afternoon, Byleth… I apologise for coming to speak to you so soon after you have finished your classwork, but I must let you know this before the Rite of Rebirth in two days. Would you care to walk with me?” Rhea said, before turning around and beginning to walk towards the monastery. Byleth knew that her question was more of a statement than an actual question, so she walked alongside her. “How have you been finding your time at Garreg Mach? It has been almost four weeks since you arrived here.”

Byleth was silent for a moment, before speaking. “I am finding myself settling in well… The other students in the Academy have been very welcoming. Leonie has become like a sister to me, as she was an apprentice under my father a few years ago. I didn’t even know that my father took on an apprentice at any point. Claude and Dimitri have been very kind to me too.”

“That is lovely to hear,” Rhea smiled, before continuing her walk. Eventually, they were both inside a large looking… bedroom?

Byleth looked around, wondering why Rhea had brought her there, before the Archbishop sighed quietly. “I wish to speak with you about your father, Byleth… I believe it is best to speak to you about him somewhere away from prying ears. Have you received any form of contact with him since you arrived here?”

The student remained silent for a moment, then shook her head. “No, Lady Rhea… I haven’t heard anything from him.”

“Please, just call me Rhea within the walls of this room,” the Archbishop stated, before taking a seat on the end of her bed. “I have heard nothing from him either. However, I can assure you that he did leave the battle in Gaspard lands alive. He was not identified amongst the bodies of your fallen mercenary companions. I will be sending a group of the Knights of Seiros to seek him out once the Rite of Rebirth had taken place.”

All that Byleth could do was remain silent. She was currently at the longest she had ever been apart from her father, which felt strange to her. It was an odd transition going from having him there almost all of the time to not having him there for her at all.

Eventually, she spoke up. “Why after the rite?”

“Your life was not the only one threatened during the Western Church’s rebellion. A note was found on Lonato’s body, explaining an assassination plot for myself on the day of the Rite of Rebirth.” Rhea then rose to her feet, and placed her hands on Byleth’s shoulders with a sad smile on her face. “We will find Jeralt. I promise you that. But I would like you to know that you are not alone in Garreg Mach. I implore you to continue as you have been until this point.”

* * *

* * *

The bells had tolled for the curfew, and Claude stretched his arms as he waited near his door to assure that nobody was returning to their rooms before he left to meet with Byleth. Once he knew that the coast was clear, he slipped out and quietly ran down the hall towards the stairs leading outside, then towards the designated meeting spot.

Moments after he leaned against the wall to the side of her room, he heard the quiet click of a door opening. However, he did not expect to hear talking.

“I reiterate exactly as Lady Rhea has said to you, Byleth. If you find yourself in need, my door shall remain open for you.”

“Thank you, Seteth… I’ll keep that in mind,” Byleth’s voice said, before there was the sound of footsteps walking away. Claude had to quickly pin himself against the wall in the shadows to make sure that he wasn’t caught outside after curfew. After about thirty seconds, he heard her sigh. “You okay over there, Claude? Seteth didn’t see you.”

“How did you know that I was here then?”

“You said that you would be there.”

“I suppose that I did, you’ve got me there…” He chuckled, stretching his arms as he stepped out from the shadows. “So… I guess that you’re wanting to know what we are going to be doing this evening. Well… Are you up to date on the goings on around here at the moment? About the assassination plot against the Archbishop?”

Byleth closed her door, and sat down on one of the steps outside her dorm. “Only this afternoon. It was down to a note found on Lord Lonato’s body… And it is meant to be happening on the day of the Rite of Rebirth?”

Claude nodded, and joined her on the step. “Yeah. Well… Our class have come to the conclusion that the assassination plot is just a cover-up. All of the Knights are going to be stationed around the Goddess Tower. Everywhere else is going to be unguarded,” he explained, with Byleth nodding as she listened. “There is a treasure vault, but nothing of value is stored there. It’s all weapons and armour and the likes. However… there is a place in Garreg Mach which will one, be publicly accessible, and two, unguarded with things of potential value inside… We are going to scout out that place tonight.”

Quickly, Claude stood up and held his hand out to help Byleth to her feet. “Come on, we can’t be having a guard or a professor catch us outside after curfew, can we?”

The two moved quickly through the grounds of Garreg Mach, Claude leading the way and explaining more about what had been found out by the class that moon. When they reached the closed gates leading into the cathedral, he showed her a way which he had discovered to slip in and out, even if the building was supposed to be closed.

Finally, they found a passageway which was well concealed, but not concealed enough to escape Claude’s keen eye.

“I have reason to believe that if we go through here, we will reach the Holy Mausoleum… The place where the bodies of the Four Saints and Saint Seiros were left to rest. We can scout out the location in advance because this is where I want us and the other Golden Deer to be when the Rite of Rebirth begins. If we can get this advantage…”

“Any potential thieves can be held off by us until the Rite of Rebirth has finished, so that the Knights return to their usual duties and can apprehend them?”

“Exactly,” he nodded, before he sighed quietly. “Are you reading my mind? Because it isn’t often that I find somebody thinking along similar lines to myself…”

Much to his surprise, she laughed, before making her way into the passage. “Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not," she stated, before using some fire magic which she had recently picked up to light up the surroundings. "You coming? We’ve got a Mausoleum to look at.”


	13. As expected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rite of Rebirth is underway, and the Golden Deer class are in position to fight off the intruders.
> 
> They encounter a person in dark armour, who appears to know details about Byleth and Jeralt which no others know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I think I'm going to start trying to pace my chapter uploads for this fic from now on! I'm very active in writing this at the moment, and is my main priority to work on at the moment. It's likely that this is going to be updated on a weekly/bi-weekly basis as of next week, most likely once during weekdays, and once at the weekend, though that depends. I'm great at creating a routine, but terrible with sticking to it unless I force myself!

Things had turned out exactly as they had expected when the Golden Deer made their way down into the Holy Mausoleum. There was a group of people who had broken in, and were trying to break into one of the tombs – one which, according to Byleth and Claude’s previous scouting, held the body of Saint Seiros.

“Everyone remembers the plan, right? One group takes the left side of the room, another takes the right. Our new classmate and I take the middle. Our aim is to incapacitate as many of the invaders as possible by the point that the Knights of Seiros arrive here after the Rite of Rebirth,” Claude stated, pulling out his bow as he looked between all of the Golden Deer. “We have to protect all of the tombs, not just the one belonging to Saint Seiros, so we need as many people towards the sides as possible.”

Quickly, the class spread out through the room, ready to advance on the enemy which had just taken notice of their presence.

The pair who were taking the centre of the room exchanged glances, before Byleth drew her sword and Claude took hold of his first arrow. It would be the first time in which they would be fighting alongside each other, and they were both fully aware that the other would be paying close attention to how they fought, for if their strategy had to change.

“So... I go first and you follow up,” she eventually muttered, before noticing the additional weapon which Claude had on his back. “But if the enemies get too close to you, you’ll use the axe, right?”

Claude nodded, then looked at what they were facing. A few close-combat opponents, in addition to a mage. There were a few other enemies on the sides of the centre, but the other students would deal with them.

There was also someone ahead... whose presence made them both feel uneasy. Neither of them looked forward to taking that opponent on. They looked almost like the reaper of the tales told throughout Garreg Mach over recent weeks.

Soon, the sound of battle filled the Holy Mausoleum, the Golden Deer students refusing to give their opponents a chance to back away or retreat. A trail of incapacitated enemies laid behind them, their plan to allow the Knights and the Church to deal with them meaning that they didn’t aim to kill.

“Imagine if Seteth were here now... He would be absolutely losing his mind at two things!” Claude eventually shouted to Byleth, who was in the process of dodging multiple dark magic attacks. “One, we left where we were supposed to be, guarding the monastery. Two, these fools trying to steal from this place!”

As Byleth jumped to the side of one more attack, an arrow hit the mage in the hand to stop the barrage of magic. That gave her the chance to knock the mage down, and get another opponent out of the way.

“Nice shot, Claude...” She whispered, sheathing her sword momentarily in order to stretch her arms. “But now... We have a choice. Fight the person in the dark armour, or slip around him. He has already made his intentions clear in that he does not take orders from the other invaders, but also that he will not attack unless provoked.”

“The question is... What counts as him being provoked? If we chose to go past him, he may take our decision not to take him on as a provocation.”

Byleth frowned, before she pulled her sword out yet again. “I’ll face against him. I won’t try to do what we have done for our other opponents; I'll just distract him long enough for you to deal with the one who is breaking into-!”

She was interrupted by a loud yell from the one damaging Saint Seiros' tomb. “Where are our reinforcements?! They should be here by now! Hold off those children until they get here, I've almost got this open!”

“Claude, _go!” _Byleth gave her classmate a nudge in the back as she made her way over to face the one standing in the centre of the room. “Hey! Who are you and what are you wanting from here? Why are you trying to desecrate this place?!”

Claude watched as the person pulled out a deadly looking weapon – it appeared to be a _scythe, _of anything – and pointed it in Byleth's direction as he slipped past.

“I am not one of these fools. I am merely... observing, child with the unbeating heart.”

Those words sent a chill down Claude's spine. Did that enemy say that Byleth’s heart... _didn’t beat_?

He hoped that he had just misheard what was said as he advanced forward, and pulled out his axe to continue fighting against the enemies which were now advancing on him.

Soon enough, Claude reached the last enemy. The others had all been incapacitated by the other Golden Deer, aside from the one which he could hear Byleth battling against behind him.

Unfortunately, he had arrived a few moments too late. The tomb had been opened, and they were pulling something out.

He had been expecting a body, or a skeleton... Not a sword. One which looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite get his finger on it. Its appearance seemed similar to Catherine’s Thunderbrand... It was when he noticed that similarity that all colour drained from his face.

It was the sword known to have been lost to history. The one wielded by Nemesis in an era long gone. The one known to have the power to break through the earth and even carve mountains in half.

“Oh crap... That’s the Sword of the Creator...”

It was when he made that observation that he felt a presence beside him. Byleth had returned to his side, though she was shaking and now possessed a multitude of red marks, bruises, and cuts across her skin, as well as her uniform being somewhat torn up.

“The others... They’re dealing with that guy... Told me to catch up to you...” she muttered, rolling her shoulders back for a moment. “And... I guess that we need to get that sword away from that guy...”

Claude nodded, hesitant to let her fight alongside him, but knowing full well that he couldn’t recover the sword on its own.

Very quickly, a blast of fire went in their direction, which they had to jump out of the way of. They then did as they had done earlier in the battle, albeit with Claude using his axe rather than his bow. Byleth got as close as she could to the enemy, then Claude struck after.

Soon enough, Byleth had to step back, her injuries making it hard to keep up with the pace that the fight was going in.

All it took, however, was a forceful blow with the handle of Claude’s axe to make the mage drop the sword. He quickly discarded his weapon to grab it. He also noticed that the mage was also attempting to grab _him, _so as soon as he had the sword, he knew that he would have to get it away quickly.

“Byleth! Catch!” He felt a slight pain in his arm as he picked up the weapon, knowing full well that it was in reaction to him not possessing the crest required to use the weapon. How the mage had held it for as long as he did with this pain was beyond him. He then threw it as quickly as he could over to Byleth, with it landing by her feet.

The mage quickly scrambled to go in her direction then, so she placed her foot on the blade to stop it from being grabbed.

Nobody expected the sword to start to _glow._

When Byleth noticed that the mage was now backing away from her, rather than trying to retrieve the sword, she removed her foot and picked it up.

Claude was unable to pinpoint how he felt about the current situation. Awe, possibly. Fear, potentially. Curiosity, likely.

Not long after she had picked up the sword, the mage managed to back up into him, which he saw as an opportunity to quickly incapacitate them.

He was very quick to drop their limp body onto the ground, and made his way over to Byleth, who was now holding onto her head with one of her hands.

“Claude... I think that knight person hurt me more than I thought...” she whispered. That was followed seconds later by the Sword of the Creator clattering onto the ground, and him having to grab hold of her as she fell forward unconscious.

* * *

* * *

One week had passed since the Rite of Rebirth, and the intrusion at the Holy Mausoleum. The news of the long-lost Sword of the Creator being discovered, and being held by the newest student in the Officer's Academy had very quickly spread throughout the grounds of Garreg Mach.

Byleth wasn’t liking any of the attention which was being brought upon herself, especially considering that she had only gone to the monastery for safety from the group of people who wanted to kill her.

After she had been healed after facing off against the one now dubbed as the ‘Death Knight', she had barely had the chance to speak to her classmates before Rhea had asked to speak to her.

She had been permitted to continue wielding the Sword of the Creator, as it had been almost 1,000 years since it last had somebody capable of using it. She had been hesitant (as had Seteth), but the Archbishop insisted. So now she had a weapon of legends with her, and the attention of an entire monastery, likely the whole country soon enough.

As soon as she had left the presence of Rhea, she had gone to her room and locked her door, ignoring the knocking on the door from her classmates as she spent some time trying to get her head around everything that had happened.

Aside from the sword, something else had been playing on her mind.

When she fought the Death Knight, he knew about things which almost nobody knew. He knew that her heart never beat, that there were people hunting her because of this, and that her father was currently missing.

He also said one thing which had haunted her since that day.

“_Your father is closer than you think. But he is not coming to you. You must come to him.”_

She couldn’t figure out what was meant by that, but it had concerned her. It could mean many things, and she didn’t know what.

The only person she had confided this to was Claude when she finally left her room. She did want to tell Rhea and Seteth, but they were more focused on the sword, and punishing those who broke into the mausoleum.

It was only when they were walking past the dining hall that they overheard a student talking to somebody else that they had an idea of what the Death Knight could have meant.

“Have you heard about the reaper around Garreg Mach? Rumour has it that he kidnaps people!”

Byleth tensed up, before grabbing Claude’s arm and pulling him behind one of the nearby walls. “You heard that, right? A reaper that kidnaps people... The Death Knight used a scythe, like the depictions of a reaper... and it just so happens that my father is missing, and he seems to know where he-!”

“What are you two doing back here? It looks very suspicious. Go. Now.”

Byleth flinched when she heard the voice from behind them both, and Claude gulped.

“Sorry about that, Professor Jeritza! Byleth was just asking a question that she-!”

“_Leave.”_

Claude sighed, and pulled Byleth away for a moment. Once out of earshot, he groaned. “Hate is a strong word, but I _really _hate that guy. He only cares about fighting, and made life for the Golden Deer _hell _before Seteth took over.”

Byleth frowned, before turning back briefly to look at the professor, and ended up locking eyes with him for a moment.

_There was definitely something... suspicious about him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... There's going to be some more canon divergence in the next chapter, in that the Golden Deer will not be sent to face Miklan but is left to the Blue Lions. I've got something in store for the Golden Deer though!


	14. By the throat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth feels a familiar, unwelcome feeling. 
> 
> Claude ends up in a precarious situation, and uncovers something alarming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a bit of violence in this chapter, so take this as a warning for that!

As Byleth went about her daily business, she began to become more and more aware of being monitored at almost all hours, aside from when she would be summoned to speak to Seteth and Rhea, or was in lessons. It gave her a similar feeling to that from when she was still in Gaspard territory, before Jeralt had told her that her life was in danger.

Sothis had been appearing before her at times, typically when she was in her room, saying that she could feel the presence too.

Since the start, however, she had an inkling on who her follower was. Professor Jeritza had been appearing at awfully convenient times as of late. She went to practice in the training grounds? He was there. She was eating? Yes, he was in the dining hall. Even when she tried to relax by fishing or gardening? There he was in the background.

Eventually, she had enough. She took it upon herself to make it obvious that she wouldn’t hesitate to attack if she figured out that she was being followed. She retrieved her dagger which she normally wore before she arrived at Garreg Mach and kept that on her at all times. She also made it clear that she had the Sword of the Creator on her person, because she had found out when training with it that it could also act like a whip at times... and she liked that. A lot.

Some people, however... grew worried when they realised that she would almost always have the weapon with her.

By some people, it was Seteth, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the Golden Deer House.

After a lesson, Seteth had asked that she remained behind just so that he could talk to her about it.

“Byleth... I can’t help but notice that despite your initial concerns about being permitted to wield the Sword of the Creator, you have had it by your side almost constantly as of late. Has something happened to cause this change in mind, or is it something which Lady Rhea has asked for you to do?” He asked, watching closely as a frown formed on her usually straight face. That was followed by her looking at the classroom doors, and asking if she could close them.

Once the door was shut, she ran a hand through her hair and bit her lip. “I honestly still don’t want to be responsible for the sword. It’s dangerous, and probably also deadly... But it isn’t a matter of wanting to have it with me. I need to have it there,” she explained, sitting down at one of the desks, pulling out the sword and setting it out before her. “When in Gaspard territory, I had a constant feeling of being watched. My father would drop hints that this was the case, but it wasn’t until he told me that I needed to escape so that I wouldn’t be killed that I knew it was the truth.” She made sure to miss out the part about her recently discovered crest activating and almost being killed if not for Sothis changing the flow of time. “Since what happened in the Holy Mausoleum, that same feeling has returned. I came to Garreg Mach for safety... not to continue to be stalked. So if I am being followed again... I won’t hesitate.”

Seteth frowned at her words. “... I understand. Is this something which could be raised with Lady Rhea? She could arrange for extra guards to protect you-"

“I would rather not... All I want is the attention _away_ from me, having guards would draw it all in. At least... until my father is here. I just wish that I didn’t have to look over my shoulder and see him almost every time I am almost anywhere but my room.”

“That sounds as though you know exactly who is following you.”

She picked the sword up once more, and put it away before sighing. “I have an idea of who. Just... I am wondering if it is because the Blue Lion class are currently preparing for their mission to fight against Sylvain's brother.”

“Ah.” Seteth shook his head and closed his eyes. He clearly knew who she was talking about based on that little piece of information. “Yes, I heard that he seemed to have a slight fixation on following one of the students from that class. I could have a word with him, saying that a student who wishes to remain anonymous has noticed him constantly following you and is concerned. That may prompt him into backing away for a while, if not for good.”

“Thank you, Seteth... That would be appreciated,” she nodded, before standing up and asking if she could now leave. Just as she got to the doors, however, she stopped and turned around. “Also... Please could you ask Flayn if she is wanting to do some fishing on Sunday? We had a lot of fun at the weekend just gone, and she asked if we could do it again.”

“I will.”

Once Byleth left the room, Seteth loudly sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “What is it with this year's cohort of students that is making Professor Jeritza act so strangely? Goddess knows...”

* * *

* * *

Claude couldn’t help but notice that despite the progress that he made over the previous moon to get close to Byleth, since the day of the Rite of Rebirth, she had started to close herself away from him again. She had stopped with the tales of her childhood, she was constantly frowning and on alert, and has stopped mentioning her father and her desire to be reunited with him, which felt rather... strange.

Despite this, he understood that Byleth was on alert as her life was in danger – possessing the Sword of the Creator could add to the danger she was in, and if shutting herself away from others was her way of dealing with it, he would let her do just that. He made it clear that he would be there for her when she needed support.

In the meantime, he had to just continue as usual. The Golden Deer house were set to fight some bandits in – of anywhere – Gloucester territory at the end of the moon, and he felt the need to show off his capability for if Lorenz's father decided to show his face during the battle.

He made his way to the training grounds, and grabbed at one of the practice bows and a few of the available arrows. He wasn’t going to be there for too long, as it was close to curfew, but he definitely had the time to get a few shots in, maybe even practice a few showy shots which screamed ‘_Can Lorenz do this? I bet not!’_

At one point, he heard the doors to the training grounds open, making him briefly lose his concentration on a target that he was aiming for. He tutted, then shook his head as he stopped what he was doing to prepare to take that shot again.

He was next disturbed by the sounds of a weapon being hastily grabbed from a weapon rack. He quietly muttered a few Almyran curses under his breath, tempted to shout at whoever else was there to keep quiet, but deciding against it because the training grounds were open to everyone – they had as much a right to be noisy as he wanted to train in silence.

He only realised that something wasn’t right about the situation when he saw a large shadow behind him. He turned around, but was quickly made to lose his footing as a lance swept his feet out from under him.

“What the he-?!” He yelled out, before freezing when he realised who was stood over him, pointing the weapon at his neck.

Then he remembered the rumours.

People getting kidnapped. At night. By a reaper.

And there he was, vulnerable after having been attacked by the Death Knight, at night.

“You... You have brought this upon yourself, Claude von Riegan...” He could hear some sort of bitterness or anger in the voice of the Death Knight, but didn’t react. He'd been attacked and almost killed many times in his life. This would just be another of those times. He would find a way out of this just as he did time and time again.

The point of the weapon was very quickly replaced with the Death Knight's hand. As he was dragged up from the floor, the grasp tightened. It hurt. It was definitely also suffocating. However, it didn’t hurt as much as the force used to pin him against one of the pillars in the grounds.

“This is the consequence of getting in my way...” was growled at him as the hand grew even tighter. He had no choice then but to try and remove the hand, or else he would pass out or die within a matter of minutes. “Maybe she will look harder if her closest classmate goes missing, just like her father...”

Claude’s eyes widened in shock. “You... You have Jeralt...”

The bells indicating the start of the curfew began to ring out across Garreg Mach. It seemed to catch the Death Knight by surprise, as his grasp loosened slightly. That gave Claude a window of opportunity to try and get away. He used all of the energy he could muster, and kicked his assailant’s torso with just enough force to separate himself.

As the Death Knight figured out just what had happened in those few moments, Claude did his best to make distance between them both. His chest felt as though it was crushing his lungs, whilst his neck ached and his legs felt weak. He did his best to ignore that, and instead just ran as far as he could as fast as possible.

He figured out quickly when out of the training grounds that the first place the Death Knight would likely look for him was his room, so he knew that he couldn’t go there. Byleth’s room was also in sight from where he was, but if he didn’t go to his room, that would be the next place suspected.

Then an idea came into his head just as he heard a noise from behind the training ground doors.

He just needed to get caught out after curfew. Whether it was a knight, a professor, or even the Archbishop herself, he just needed to find _one _of them.

He ran towards the monastery, and was just beside the stairs leading the next floor up when he heard the noise of the Death Knight’s armour not far behind him.

When up the stairs, the first place he saw was an empty audience chamber. He also had to stop to catch his breath. His body was in so much pain from being choked that he was surprised he was still conscious at this point.

He managed to then drag himself over to Seteth's office, and hit the door a few times. It was locked, much to his frustration. He let out a loud, pained noise then, his footing growing unstable beneath him.

Fortunately, that was enough to get somebody’s attention.

“What on earth is going on out here? What can a woman do to ask for a night of peace and quiet to drink away her-!” Manuela had appeared in the doorway of the infirmary, just as Claude fell down to his hands and knees, struggling to catch his breath.

“Pro... fessor... Help...”

* * *

* * *

“Hey, Byleth... You got any idea what’s happening here?” Leonie had met up with Byleth very quickly when the morning had arrived, looking around the area in front of the dormitory hallways. “There are knights _everywhere. _Do you think that something has happened?”

Byleth frowned, and shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I’m aware that Seteth and the Archbishop have said many times that they could get some guards to stay near me, but I doubt this would be anything to do with that... Clearly something has happened though...”

The two continued to watch as the increased number of Knights went past, before they heard somebody running over to them. They were surprised when they realised it was Lysithea, who had worry all over her face.

“Professor Seteth has asked for all of the Golden Deer to come to our classroom. He didn’t say why, but it sounds awfully serious.”

“Is it to do with the number of knights about today?” Leonie asked as the three began to walk quickly to the classroom. “I hope that nothing serious has... Oh, that’s weird...” She trailed off when she looked at the training ground doors. “I've never seen the training grounds closed before.”

The other two agreed that it was unusual, and after that, they were silent as they made their way into the classroom courtyard. They noticed that the Black Eagles and Blue Lions were also there, seemingly confused at what was going on too.

Then they got to their own classroom, and were met with an eruption of noise and conversation.

“If you haven’t noticed, there are a few people missing. Namely Claude and Byleth, the two most suspicious people in our class. Of anyone, the two of them are most likely to have caused this heightened security,” Lorenz stated out loud, which led to Leonie very quickly grabbing hold of Byleth’s wrist when she saw her fists clench.

“There is no need to make accusations, Lorenz. No student is responsible for the current goings on,” came from the front of the classroom, a tired looking Seteth rubbing his hand against his forehead. He then looked up, and saw the three who had just entered, and cleared his throat. “It looks as though everyone is here, so can you all take a seat to I can explain to you all what is going on.”

The students all sat down, a few puzzled looks being shared when they realised that there was still an empty seat in the classroom. Seteth then folded his arms, and looked over all them.

“This morning, you all may have noticed the heightened security around Garreg Mach. There is a reason for this,” he began, keeping a close eye on the reactions of the students. “Last night, at around the time that the curfew began, a student - Claude - was attacked by the Death Knight that you all fought at the Holy Mausoleum. He was almost killed.”

Everyone fell into a stunned silence.

“As such... We have increased security around Garreg Mach to protect you all. Please also do not swarm the infirmary, and give your house leader space to recover unless he asks for your company. We are having to inform Duke Riegan of the incident, and are expecting his presence at any day now as a result.”

“So... So let me get this straight...” Hilda asked, slowly standing up from her seat. “The Death Knight tried to kill Claude last night?!”

“The intentions are unclear at present. All we have been able to establish is that the Death Knight was the perpetrator, and that Claude fortunately did the best thing that he could after being injured and sought out Professor Manuela,” Seteth explained, doing his best to keep the situation calm and under control. “I will do my best to keep you all informed on his recovery and on what happened, but for now, remain calm and do not speculate what happened. That is something for Claude to explain.”

He then dismissed the class, but before Byleth could leave, Seteth placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Professor Manuela said that the first thing Claude did after waking up was ask for you. I am going to check up on him now so that I can properly inform Duke Riegan of the goings on, so would you mind coming with me?”

“He did...?” She was quite surprised, considering that she had barely known him for little over one moon, whereas he had known the other Golden Deer for longer. “Right... I'll go.”

The courtyard outside the classrooms had appeared to have calmed down by that point, with the students now going about their typical daily business. Byleth assumed that they had all been told what had happened to Claude, and not to fuss about it either.

Byleth had noticed that once in the monastery, security seemed even tighter than outdoors. She felt both relieved... but concerned at the same time. How bad could the attack on Claude have been to bring about all of this overnight?

Then they reached the infirmary. The door was open, and Byleth peered inside. Claude was sat on one of the beds with a glass of water in his hands. He looked exhausted, which was quite unusual for him. He also appeared to be wearing his uniform, just without a majority of the layers. He was just in a shirt and trousers, and even the braid he normally had in his hair was undone.

He then looked towards the door, and a weak smile formed on his face. “H... Hi, Byleth...”

She straight away noticed that his voice sounded strained, which is when her line of sight moved to his neck. It was covered in a variety of deep purple bruises and red markings, which made her almost feel sick.

“Claude... The Death Knight did this to you? Are you okay?” she asked when she ran over to his bedside as he took a slow sip of the water. “Wh... Why did... What happened?”

Claude strained for a moment, and that was followed by a hoarse cough. “He wanted… to kidnap me...” He then looked at her with worry in his eyes. “He also...” Claude went to have more of his water, before looking away from her. He didn't want to see her reaction to what he needed to say. “He also has Jeralt.”


	15. Assumptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth and Claude make a light-hearted wager to distract themselves from all of the bad goings on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should be the last chapter before I try to get myself into a once or twice a week routine. I've got a few chapters after this written up, and I'll _hopefully_ get into a proper routine with updating this!

By the time that Claude had returned to classes, the mission for the Golden Deer had been cancelled. It was deemed too much of a risk sending the class out when one of them had been almost kidnapped, and another remaining in Garreg Mach for safety. There were the others, but through associations and other factors, it was decided to send a group of knights to deal with the bandit situation in Gloucester territory.

Despite this, the Blue Lions and Black Eagles still carried out their own missions. It was noticeable that of them all, the Blue Lions had a very forlorn atmosphere around them upon their return. After all, they _had _just killed the brother of one of their own, even if he had been disinherited and disowned.

Now it was a new moon, and as such, came a new mission.

It was simple, and shared between the three houses. Find the Death Knight.

There had still been sightings of the man around Garreg Mach, and every time that knights had noticed him, he managed to get away. Claude had been certain that on the day he had been allowed to roam the monastery again, that he saw him at a distance when he went to return to his room. Needless to say, Claude had found himself locking and barricading his door since that point.

As a consequence of all that had happened, Claude was put under close to constant guard at the request of his grandfather after the news had been passed on to him. Rhea had in turn decided that the same would apply to Byleth.

Neither of them liked the situation or the constant monitoring, so they had decided to gather in one of the moments where they weren’t under watch – in the Golden Deer classroom, straight after a lesson. They had been told to remain there by Seteth until their guards arrived, so they knew that they didn’t have long to plan.

“We need to think of places around Garreg Mach where somebody could hide a person without alerting anyone else. I managed to persuade Rhea to get me a map of the monastery, so we can mark down some key places,” Byleth explained, rolling out the map in front of them.

Claude laughed for a moment, before coughing briefly. His throat still hadn’t fully recovered yet, so he was having to be careful with any noises or talking that he did, and had to make sure he had water with him to drink just in case. “First name basis with the Archbishop? Lucky you,” he grinned, before picking up his pen and marking two places – the dorm rooms of the knights and academy faculty, and the treasure vault near to the graveyard.

“… Oh, I said Rhea? Yes… She says that I can call her that when Seteth isn’t accompanying her, and if there are no guards around. Interesting places, by the way… I’d like to add one more,” Byleth muttered, drawing a circle around one specific room in the knights’ dorms. “Professor Jeritza’s room. Have you noticed that he has barely appeared over recent weeks, yet the Death Knight is appearing more? I find it even more suspicious that after I asked Seteth to stop him from following me that the Death Knight attacked you that night…”

Claude listened to her for a moment before his eyes widened. “Wait… Maybe that is why…” He then gave her a worried look. “I think you’re right. I think that the Death Knight is Professor Jeritza. When he confronted me…” He paused for a moment, and ran his hands through his hair. “He said that I ‘_brought this upon myself_’, as though he was accusing me of something…”

“Like… reporting to Seteth that he was following me constantly. Seteth said he would frame it as though a student had reported it to him, but was wanting to remain anonymous… And he came to the conclusion that it was you.”

They remained in a tense silence, until Byleth rolled up the map. “Claude… I’m sorry that you got pulled into this…” He then reached out for one of her hands, and gave it a light squeeze. “This is all my fault…” Her hand started trembling as she covered her eyes with her other hand. “If I had never left my father… If I had never come here...” Claude’s eyes widened when he saw a faint trail of a tear down her face. “Dad…”

“If you had never come here… You would be dead. And I never would have met such a wonderful and interesting person to call a friend…” He watched as her shoulders quivered when he spoke, before a serious look formed on his face. “Besides, I chose to get myself involved in this. I will remain involved too. I’m too invested in this to just give up now. I want to see you reunited with your father. And I want the Death Knight to get what he deserves.”

Claude never expected for Byleth to suddenly grab hold of him for a hug after that. “Thank you...” Her voice came out as a broken whisper against his shoulder. It had been a long time since somebody had embraced him like that. It felt nice.

He hugged her back, until the moment that their guards for the day arrived.

Byleth didn’t want to let him go, though. She had missed being close to someone. She had never been good at expressing herself, but had given Jeralt a hug on occasion. Hugging Claude as thanks for him being there for her... It brought back a comfort and familiar feeling that she hadn’t felt in just over four moons – the little over two moons she had been in Gaspard territory, and the two she had been in Garreg Mach.

She made her mind up there and then that the first thing she was going to do when they found Jeralt was hug him.

“Hey, Byleth... We can go now. How about we go get something to eat?”

She wiped her eyes as she tucked the map they were looking at earlier away. She then took a deep breath, and shook her head. “I'll join you later... I... I was showed something by Alois when he was guarding me the other day, and I'm wanting to go there...”

Out of curiosity, he raised his eyebrow. “Mind if I come with then?”

“I...” Her hand slowly went up to the ring which was still around her neck. “If you want.”

Now being followed by their guards, Byleth led Claude out of the Golden Deer classroom. The courtyard outside was covered in grass and flowers, but was awfully hot and humid for Byleth. Claude was surprised when he saw her take off the jacket of her uniform and tie it around her waist, roll up her sleeves, then take off her glasses to rub the lenses clean of the moisture building up on them.

It was at that point that he told her that the Officer's Academy had a summer uniform, and all she had to do was ask Seteth for it. She looked stunned, before huffing about not knowing that earlier. He even noticed that one of the guards was chuckling at some of the obscenities coming from her.

_The mouth of a mercenary was indeed an interesting one._

By the point that they reached a hallway leading through the monastery, beside the stairs leading to the next floor up, Byleth had now even undone the top few buttons of her shirt in annoyance at the heat. Claude, however, felt chills. He could still remember the fear and pain he was in when the Death Knight was attempting to pursue him. If he had hesitated at any point on his way to those stairs, he would likely be stuck wherever the Death Knight had Byleth’s father. If not dead.

“It's just at the other end of this hall,” Byleth eventually stated, her voice strangely quiet compared to a few moments earlier. He nodded, using that as something to focus on rather than the stairs they had finally gone past.

He stopped partway though, and bent down to pick something up from the floor. Byleth had a look at it closely as he held it up, before smiling. “That’s Petra's. It’s a feather from a species of bird native to Brigid. You can tell by the vivid colours and patterns on the feather. I can give it to her later, if you want.”

Claude was shocked that she had been able to figure out that mystery as quickly as she had done. As such, he gave her the feather to return to its rightful owner.

They both continued in silence, until finally, the warmth of the sun hit them once more. Fortunately, there wasn’t a building blocking the breeze at this side of the monastery, so Byleth sighed in relief.

She then led them to a set of stairs, and took a deep breath. “There is a grave here that I want to visit. I'll explain why when we reach it...”

Claude nodded in understanding, and followed her down the steps. It seemed that their guards decided that as the graveyard was a small and enclosed area, they would remain at the top of the stairs.

Eventually, Byleth stopped at a grave, located at the corner of the cemetery. The views from there were extensive – it was possible to see Alliance lands in the distance from there.

“This grave is that of a lady known as Sitri. She was known in Garreg Mach as a beautiful woman who was sickly, and as a result could rarely leave the grounds of the monastery. She was never good with emotion, but loved flowers – especially those she received from her husband, a high-ranking Knight of Seiros. It was said that her smile would light up a room, and that when she was pregnant with her child... it was the happiest she had ever been. That’s what Alois told me anyway...” Byleth explained, looking at the headstone with a sadness in her eyes. “Her husband... Was called Jeralt Reus Eisner.”

“And the child that she was pregnant with... You?”

Byleth nodded, bringing her hand to the ring she had, running her fingers over the gemstones. “According to Alois, I'm very similar to her. The main differences being that I am healthy, and my hair isn’t as long or as green. And that we find the same shitty jokes of his funny.”

Claude had to hold back a loud laugh at the last remark, and quickly covered his mouth. In response, Byleth smiled and nodded. “You can laugh if you want, graveyards are often forlorn...”

He smiled back at her, before walking over to the wall bordering the cemetery. “Where I come from, a death is a cause for a celebration. A time where you can feast on their favourite foods, dance, and celebrate their lives. A death in Fódlan is quite different...”

“Where is it that you come from then?”

“Ah, that’s my little secret. I'll gladly let you know that my mother was from Fódlan, how else could I be heir to House Riegan and possess its crest? My father is... not from Fódlan. That’s all I can say, for now.”

Byleth nodded, before joining him by the wall. “Care to make a wager?”

Claude was surprise at her question, and suspiciously raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think that your Archbishop buddy up in the monastery will be happy with you making bets stood by your mother’s grave, but what she doesn’t know wouldn’t hurt... Go on then.”

“If I find out where you are from before we find the Death Knight and save my father from him... You tell me more about your life there. About your father’s side of the family, and the differences between here and there.”

“But that would make it easy – you could literally just name all of the countries near Fódlan and you'll eventually get it right,” he stated, intentional in dropping the hint about it being a nearby country. “How about... You find out where I am from, and my birth name. Believe it or not, I've only been called ‘Claude' since I came to Fódlan. I don’t care for what I'm called, as I'm used to both names, but it would be interesting to see if you can figure it out.”

Byleth was surprised at this piece of information – she never knew that Claude only went by Claude in Fódlan.

“Sure. I'm good with that.”

“And if you don’t figure it out before we save Jeralt... Hmm, I get to ask him for your most embarrassing childhood stories, and you can’t stop me.”

“Oh Goddess...” He watched as she ran her hand through her hair, biting her lip. “_Fine..._ Let’s shake on it before I change my mind.” She held out her hand hesitantly, knowing for a fact that Claude was now going to do everything in his power to stop her uncovering his other name.

“And I get to share them with Leonie,” he quickly added as he took hold of her hand, a beaming grin on his face.

Byleth gawped in shock at the last addition before they agreed to their bet, before sighing. “That shouldn’t matter... Shouldn’t matter at all... Because I'll find out your name...”

Before they could talk on it any further, Claude placed his hand against his stomach. “I'm starving. We should go to eat. Hmm, it’s warm still, so I might have some lovely, refreshing tea too... I'm killing for some of my favourite blend.”

Byleth’s eyes widened. “I love tea... What sort do you like? Bergamot? Chamomile? I know that Dimitri likes that...”

“Almyran pine needle,” he smiled, putting a slight emphasis on the first word. She didn’t react to his little hint, so he decided that he would keep dropping more hints this way.

“I've never tried that one before... I might have some too,” she replied, a smile on her face as they started to make their way out of the graveyard, and we rejoined by the guards as they went in search for food and drinks. She then smirked when she knew Claude couldn’t see her face. She had heard the emphasis he made on the name of the tea, but she was just that good at having a poker face, he didn’t realise that she had caught on.

When they reached the dining hall, the pair had been very quick to get their food and drink, and sit together. They were soon joined by Leonie, and from there, they began to have a conversation with one another using their eyes.

Byleth glared at him – her way of saying ‘_Don't you dare tell Leonie about the bet.’_

He reacted with wide eyes, feigning innocence, a clear ‘_Oh my, why would you think I would do that?’_

Soon, Byleth added her foot to the conversation, and kicked him in the shin. ‘_You fucking dare, Claude von Riegan.’_

“Uh... Is there something going on here between you two? You're pulling strange faces, and the table keeps moving when you’re kicking each other...” Leonie eventually said, gesturing to the food which was beginning to fall off their plates and onto the table. “It seems real... y'know... childish.”

Byleth’s glare at Claude intensified, and he began laughing out loud. “Oh, I am _so _glad that you asked that, Leonie!”

“_Claude!”_

“We've got a little bet going on. Byleth here is trying to find out about a secret of mine by the time that we find Jeralt, to distract ourselves from focusing on all that has happened as of late and from the fear that the Death Knight could be after us again...” He began, watching with a childish light in his eyes as Byleth buried her head in his hands.

“If I don’t do it by then, he gets to ask my father for my most embarrassing childhood stories, _and _gets to tell them to you too.”

Leonie sat in a stunned silence for a moment, before she had to quickly cover her mouth to stifle a laugh. “O-Okay,_ that_, I would _love _to hear. Maybe not the too embarrassing ones, but I'd love to hear some.”

Byleth pushed her plate back and dropped her head onto the table.

“Goddess save me...”


	16. Focus of attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the search for the Death Knight narrows down in Garreg Mach, Byleth is trying to keep her attention on other things, like her bet with Claude, and the scream she hears when at the stables.

The search was still ongoing. Sightings of the Death Knight were still regular, and by that point, it had appeared that Professor Jeritza had vanished. It confirmed to Byleth and Claude that their theory about the two being one and the same was correct, and it seemed that others were picking up on this too.

Fortunately, the search had stepped up when the Death Knight attempted another kidnapping which was stopped before it was too late.

Flayn had left something behind at the fishing pond, and had gone to retrieve it before retiring for the night. Seteth, out of concern due to the current state of affairs (and also on her request), had gone with her. He waited by the doors to the dining hall for her to get what she was looking for, but heard her scream out for help.

He had run down to the waterside, and had saw the Death Knight holding onto her arm. Luckily, Seteth had been able to use some magic which he knew to break her free. The Death Knight had fled in the direction of the stables and the dorm rooms of the academy staff and the knights, which led to all the hunt for him being narrowed down to that specific area.

As a result of the attempted kidnapping, Seteth had finally given in to Flayn’s request to join the Officer’s Academy. He was already having to keep an eye on Byleth and Claude to keep them safe, having another person to watch over during lessons wouldn’t add too much to that. Or at least it would be better than the alternative of having her out of his line of sight whilst he taught the Golden Deer.

Whilst all this had gone on, Byleth was still using the bet which she made with Claude as a distraction from being constantly supervised and her father being missing. There were obviously times where she would help in the search, but she knew that she couldn’t dedicate her whole life to it.

“I know that you lived in Almyra. I’ve figured that out, at least,” she said to Claude when he asked her about her progress as she sat in the library one afternoon on their weekly day off. It was also one of the few places where it was decided that neither one of them needed to be guarded, or were at the very least guarded from a distance. “As for the name, I haven’t figured that out yet.”

Claude grinned as he sat at the opposite side of her table, before leaning back as he opened a book he had grabbed from a shelf. “I _could _give you a hint, if you wanted,” he muttered as he flicked to a random page. “But that'll cost you an extra embarrassing story when Jeralt is found.”

Byleth narrowed her eyes, and frowned. “You think that I won’t do it, don’t you?”

“Hmm, maybe.”

“Give me the hint. I'll figure it out, then you get to spill all your other secrets about growing up in Almyra.”

With a satisfied sigh, he closed the book without having read any of it, before leaning towards her. “It begins with a ‘K'.”

“That’s vague.”

“Yep. But _surely_ you’re going to figure it out, aren’t you?” he chuckled, which led to a book being tossed at his head and him pushing his chair back to avoid the attack. “Hey! Careful, I'm damaged goods as is!” he whined in response, gesturing to the pale bruises which were almost fully healed on his neck.

“I wasn’t aiming for there though.”

After a few more moments of play fighting, they were approached by a frustrated-looking monk.

“If you both want to mess about, find somewhere _other than _the library.”

* * *

* * *

A few days later, Byleth still had no progress in trying to uncover Claude’s other name. She had come up with a list of Almyran names beginning with K, and was progressively crossing them off. She would persuade people to say the names within his vicinity to see if he would react, but there had been nothing up to that point.

She only had a few names left on her list, and was intent on having narrowed it down to one by the end of that day.

Before she could focus on which of the names it could be, however, something had happened.

She had been with Leonie and Marianne in the stables – unguarded, because it was technically still lesson time – and the three of them were tending to the horses and pegasi on request of Seteth in preparation for upcoming certification exams. Whilst doing this, they heard a scream. It was a familiar voice, and they had no idea what to do about it.

“Something doesn’t sit right about this with me... There’s no knights nearby, so we should investigate... Right...?” Leonie had muttered, slowly reaching behind her and taking hold of her lance. “What do you think, Byleth?” When Byleth slowly nodded back, Marianne hesitantly agreed too, keeping herself as calm as she could by giving Dorte a few gentle strokes of her mane.

Byleth took hold of the Sword of the Creator, before the three went towards the source of the scream. It managed to lead them towards the rooms for the knights and staff, so instantly Byleth had an idea of where to go.

“Professor Jeritza's room. We need to check there first.”

They eventually reached the door, and found it ajar. There were noises coming from inside, which sounded like somebody in pain. They pushed the door open, and were shocked at the sight.

“Professor Manuela!” The three went over to the woman on the floor, and noticed that there was blood on her stomach and between her fingers.

“Marianne, go and get Seteth and the others!” Byleth quickly shouted, kneeling down beside Manuela. “Professor, what happened?”

Manuela muttered a few choice words, before pointing to what appeared to be a gaping hole in the wall. “I found the mask that Jeritza would wear on the floor and went to return it to him, but then… That.. That guy... He stabbed me!”

For the next few minutes, Byleth did her best to heal the wound, beginning to question why she had sent Marianne to get the others when she was the more proficient healer of the three of them.

“Forget about me... The Death Knight is down there...” Manuela eventually grumbled. “I can take care of myself until your friends get here...”

Leonie gave Byleth a worried look, but they both nodded and made their way over to the hole. It looked long and dark, but in the distance there was light. It definitely led somewhere. Even if it was leading to somewhere outdoors, it could be important information for the Knights of Seiros when it came to apprehending the Death Knight.

When they went inside, Leonie's breath became shakier. “You... You don’t think that this could be where the Death Knight has Captain Jeralt, do you...?”

“I... I don’t know. I’m hoping that at the very least there could be a clue to where he is... I worry for him more with each passing day...”

Leonie gave Byleth a reassuring smile in response, before placing her hand on her shoulder. “Let's hope together then.”

Eventually, they found themselves at the end of the tunnel, and found themselves in a place which looked ominous. It was dark, covered in rubble, lit only by the occasional candle, and...

“Finally! We caught up to you both! Seteth will be here in a minute, and- What is...” Claude’s voice and many other footsteps emerged behind them before it all fell silent once more. “What the hell is this place...?”

The entire Golden Deer class looked around in shock, awe, and fear at their menacing surroundings. As a precaution, they all made sure that they had a weapon or magic available for if they were attacked.

Eventually, there was a clatter of a weapon on the floor. Claude and Leonie attempted to grab hold of Byleth, but she very quickly got out of their reach. She briefly turned around, and pointed to something in the distance. “H- He’s there, he’s lying over there-!” She stammered, before continuing to run.

None of them knew what to do, so Claude took a deep breath and turned around. “We need to check this place out. The Death Knight could be here. I’ll check on Byleth with Leonie, the rest of you make sure this place is clear of danger and meet back here when Seteth arrives.”

There were no arguments to what he had said, not even from Lorenz, so they all spilt up. Claude and Leonie quickly began to make their way over to Byleth, and it didn’t take long for the sound of her quiet sobs to echo around the strange cavern. When they reached her, they froze.

Byleth was hunched over on the ground, giving one of the two people there a tight hug. Based on Leonie’s reaction, Claude figured out that it was definitely Jeralt. But there was also an unfamiliar person who _looked _like an Officer’s Academy student, but was certainly not a student from the current classes.

Eventually, he leaned down next to Byleth and did his best to reassure her.

“Hey... Byleth... Come on. There’s no need to cry, yeah? You’re together again,” Claude whispered, taking hold of one of her hands. “He probably needs to see a healer to make sure he isn’t hurt, ideally before the Death Knight appears again.”

Leonie nodded in agreement. “I say that you two should get Captain Jeralt out of here. Professor Seteth will be here soon as you said earlier Claude, so he can help out with this other person here. If anything happens down here, you'll both be the first to know.”

Byleth looked between the two with tears still falling down her face, but she took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. “Th… Thank you…” She whispered, before looking at Jeralt and nudging at him. When he didn’t wake, she sighed and stepped over him to take hold of his arm. “I take one arm, you take the other…?”

“Sure… Just don’t forget your sword that you dropped over by the exit.”

Byleth took a deep breath, and sighed. “I’ll grab it when we go past.”

The two then did their best to get Jeralt up from the floor, leaving Leonie to check on the girl who remained behind.

It took a short while, but once they managed to get Jeralt up to where Byleth had previously left Manuela, they were met with the sight of Seteth and a few knights.

The reactions of those who had been in the room had been that of shock, and just that was enough to make Byleth begin to feel emotional again.

Eventually, Byleth had been persuaded to let go of Jeralt, and allow the knights to take him to the infirmary to be cared for. Both she and Claude were then told to get some fresh air whilst they waited for their classmates to return from the caves below, whilst Seteth joined the other Golden Deer who were still investigating that strange place below.

When outside, she let out a loud shaky breath, before taking hold of Claude’s arm and resting her head against it. “Thank you… Thank you, Claude…”

He quietly laughed, before looking up at the sky. “Actually, the name you are looking for is ‘Khalid’. Nobody is to know that, yeah?”

She paused for a moment, and sighed. “Oh, yes… the bet…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hassle Jeralt for the embarrassing stories yet. I’ll wait for him to be up and about again,” he smiled, before closing his eyes. “By the way, I’ll wait for the others. I can tell that you’re wanting to go to your father, so you should go. It’s been almost three moons since you last saw him, and I don’t want to be the one who holds you back, and I have a feeling that the other Golden Deer would feel the same.”

Byleth gave him a small smile as she let go of his arm, and turned to walk away. However, she stopped. “Claude… Thank you for being my friend through all of this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Jeralt is back!
> 
> The next update is likely to be on Wednesday or Thursday.


	17. Awakenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth is waiting for Jeralt to wake up, and something is happening in the nearby Sealed Forest...

He woke up to the feeling of a cool breeze, soft sheets, and somebody holding onto his hand. A vast contrast to what he last remembered, with a mouth full of cold mud and grass…

“I hope that you wake up soon…” a small voice came from his side, followed by his hand being lifted slightly. “I’ve got a lot to tell you about what has happened since you sent me away… You probably wouldn’t believe me with some of it… I’ve made some friends, discovered that I can hold a sword lost to history…” He felt his hand be held against her forehead. “I’ve even laughed, cried, smiled… all those things you said that you never saw me do.”

“You’re rambling, kid… That’s new for you too.”

Byleth gasped loudly, and quickly let go of his hand. She looked at him with wide eyes when he opened his own. “Father-!” Despite having just woke up, he had all the air knocked out of his lungs as Byleth almost _lunged _at him to give him a hug. “You’re finally awake… I’m so glad… I missed you…”

Jeralt wasn’t too sure on how to react to the sudden embrace, but he eventually smiled and returned the hug. “I’ve missed you too, kid…” he muttered, freeing one of his arms to move into an upright position. “Clearly something has happened if you’re acting so clingy, so… how long have I been out? I can remember holding back the people after you, but nothing until waking up now…”

Slowly Byleth pulled herself apart from him, and bit her lip. “Well… I’ve been here for three moons… So I assume that would be how long,” she began, giving off a quiet sigh. “Rhea was happy to take me in, but only under the condition that I enrolled as a student at the Officer’s Academy. She’s given me space and privacy, exactly as you said for her to do, except for a short period of time when I had to have some guards…”

Jeralt was silent as he listened to her speak before he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Byleth… I expected to get here no later than a week after you, not three moons later…” he muttered, before looking at her. “I remember that I got hit on the back of my head, but… an injury like that shouldn’t have knocked me out for that long…”

She frowned, before standing up. “I should tell somebody that you’re awake…” Byleth stated, before gasping and turning to face him quickly. “Oh, and before I forget… Now that you’re awake, you may get approached by a person in the Officer’s Academy uniform, yellow cloak over one of his shoulders. His name’s Claude, and we _may _have made a bet which had the condition that if I lost, he could ask you for embarrassing stories from my childhood. He’s a good person, my closest friend here actually, and I’d say just to let him know what he wants to know…”

“Got it.”

Byleth was reluctant to leave Jeralt alone, but knew that she would have to tell Rhea at the very least about him waking up – aside from her, the Archbishop had been his most frequent visitor. She made sure to turn back to give him a smile before leaving the room to head towards the Audience Chamber, knowing that Rhea would likely be there.

When she reached the doorway, she noticed that Rhea, Seteth, and the three house leaders were in there talking, so she remained where she was as they spoke.

“There is to be no foul play during this mock battle, nor will there be any professors present on the battlefield. I feel it also necessary to say that none of the relic weapons are permitted, should Byleth or Sylvain be chosen to participate,” Seteth stated, looking between the three students. “Familiarise yourselves with the layout of Gronder Field, and use this moon to strategize with your classmates.”

Rhea nodded along. “I look forward to seeing the progress from each of your Houses in the mock battle,” she stated, before she noticed the extra person in the room. “The three of you are dismissed. It seems as though there is a visitor.”

As the three house leaders turned around, Claude’s eyes widened when he realised it was Byleth. That was followed by him mouthing the word ‘_Awake?’, _and her giving him a small nod back.

After a few moments, it was just Byleth, Rhea, and Seteth stood in the room.

“I can assume that your presence indicates a change in Jeralt’s state, Byleth?” Seteth asked, concern clearly present on his face. It could only be assumed that he was worried for her, as he would have been in a similar situation to her had he not gone with Flayn that night that the Death Knight had tried kidnapping her.

Byleth nodded slowly, and took a deep breath. “He’s finally woke up…” she began before her gaze went towards the floor. “He doesn’t know anything about what has happened to him over the past three moons though…”

Rhea frowned, and took a few steps towards her. “Do not blame yourself. Jeralt chose this path, and in the end, you have both reunited as he intended. It may not have happened as he wanted or when he wanted, but you are safe and alive, as is he,” the Archbishop reassured as her frown turned into a thin smile. “Now… surely you must have some catching up to do with your father? I shall give you both some time together without disturbances, and visit him this evening.”

* * *

* * *

“It’s a shame that we _had _to let them reunite… I _so _wanted to rip that crest stone out of her chest cavity when she ran over to her father, waking him up so that he and that annoying boy who got away from the Death Knight could watch her bleed out all over the floor…” Stood out in the Sealed Forest, not too far from Garreg Mach, were a group of people talking over recent events. “Like… wouldn’t it be cool, just watching it all gush over the floor as she lets out her last few pained gasps for-!”

“Kronya! Silence, I will not be hearing this. You know that as soon as we heard that the one with the crest stone escaped Gaspard territory that we had to change our strategy. Fortunately, as things turned out, things have gone better than we could have hoped having the famous ‘Blade Breaker’ as our prisoner for a short while…” One man stated, pulling a vial of something out. It didn’t take much to realise that it was filled with blood. “The man has lived a… _long _life. Tales have been spread about him for a long time – over a hundred years, for that matter. Turns out that he possesses the blood and crest of a bloodline which, normally, would only belong to the Hresvelg family. The Crest of Seiros…”

“This is… preposterous. Are you implying that Jeralt has met and interacted with Seiros, who in turn gave him her crest?” A heavily armoured person calmly stated, throwing their arm back in disbelief as the mask over their face almost came loose. “Or are you saying that he is from the time of Seiros?”

“I have reason to believe that Saint Seiros is alive, in the form of Archbishop Rhea.”

“Wait… I’m getting kind of lost here. That old man you had me capture has something to do with that stupid Nabatean we’ve been searching for? What does this have to do with the girl whose heart we are after other than the fact that he’s her father?”

The man sighed loudly. “I will explain at a later time, Kronya. For now, continue your façade as Monica von Ochs, keep in contact with us via Solon, and monitor the Archbishop, the Blade Breaker, and the child. Perhaps also the heir to House Riegan too, for he has been getting rather…_ invested_ in the Eisner family, according to my sources in Garreg Mach.” He then turned his back, and began to walk away. “Good day, Kronya. Flame Emperor.”


	18. Broken lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude couldn't help but notice that Garreg Mach was strangely quiet.

As the day’s events drew to a close, Claude couldn’t help but notice something off about Garreg Mach as he went to the dining hall. Everywhere was awfully quiet. He could barely see anyone anywhere, aside from members of staff or knights doing their jobs. As he ate, the dining hall was almost abandoned.

When he realised that nobody was likely to be appearing at any point soon, he decided to do some investigating. He started with the fishing pond and greenhouse, as that was a popular place after lessons. When he left the dining hall though, he found the area almost completely empty aside from a lone fisherman and the greenhouse keeper. Not even the likes of Dedue or Flayn were about, and he knew that they would often be found in these areas.

His next point of call was the marketplace. That would normally have a few people there.

This time, however, there was close to no one. With the exceptions of a few vendors and local residents, it was mostly deserted.

Each place he checked after that point appeared emptier than the last, until he reached the classrooms. It was at that point that he saw Linhardt yawning as he walked towards the Black Eagles classroom. Claude felt a lot of relief _finally _seeing somebody he recognised.

“Hey, Linhardt!” He called out from near the doors to the Golden Deer classroom, running over to the sleepy student before he too vanished. “Finally, somebody exists!”

“Hmm?” Linhardt rubbed his eyes for a moment, before opening his mouth in realisation. Or stifling a yawn. One or the other. “You’re looking for where everyone is, aren’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, he went into the classroom, and sat down at one of the back desks. Claude trailed for a moment, confused.

“You, uh… don’t happen to know where anyone is, do you?”

Linhardt nodded as he stretched his arms and yawned, before resting his head on the desk. “Yeah…” He then moved one of his arms to under his head, so that it wasn’t lying on the hard wood. “They’re all at the… you know…” He made a vague gesture towards the furthest corner of the classroom as he closed his eyes. “Seteth and that man are fighting…”

With that, Linhardt had fallen asleep, but had given Claude enough of a clue on what was happening. The hand gesture made happened to be pointing in the direction of the training grounds, so he decided that would be his next place to investigate.

As he grew closer to the grounds however, he felt himself hesitating. He hadn’t been in there in _weeks_, not since… He brought his hand up to his throat, remembering just how close to death he had been when the Death Knight had attacked him that night. Despite this, he fought past the building fear and anxiety and pushed the doors open, just to notice that there was quite the crowd.

He did his best to slip past a few of the yelling students to get a clearer view of what was going on, before gasping as he got to the front of the crowd. In the middle of the training grounds, there were two people with lances fighting against one another. On closer inspection, he realised that it was Seteth and Jeralt, who he could have sworn Byleth had said was meant to spend another few days resting.

“You’ve got more than that in you, don’t you Seteth? I’ve been out of action for three moons, what’s your excuse?” Jeralt taunted, making Claude raise his eyebrow. From the corner of his eyes, however, he saw Byleth sat watching, a hint of excitement in her eyes on her otherwise straight face.

There was a loud clash of lances as Seteth gritted his teeth, and did his best to get past the sudden defence which the former mercenary had set up. “I’ll have you _know-!”_ There was one particularly forceful attack which Jeralt was barely able to deflect, which led to Seteth having to re-adjust his grip of his weapon before going at it again. “That I have been watching over your _daughter-!” _He then thrust forward, which led to Jeralt using his lance to catch the other lance, twisting it so that it pointed away from him, then pushing Seteth back. “Because you sent her here for safety!”

It was Jeralt’s turn to go on the offensive then, as the onslaught of attacks had tired Seteth out. “And I’m thankful that you did!” He did something with his feet as he swung his lance almost like a sword which puzzled Claude, that had never been something he had seen a lance user do before. “However…” He then brought the lance down in a similar manner to an axe, bringing the training grounds to absolute silence as the loud crack of a weapon echoed around. “That didn’t quite answer my question.”

Seteth’s eyes were wide as the end of his lance fell to the ground, and Jeralt smirked as he stood up straight and placed the end of his lance on the floor. The audience began to cheer and shout, the excitement of the battle having finished in such a dramatic manner quickly spreading.

“I can see why people call you ‘Blade Breaker’, Jeralt… That was most impressive that you managed to break my weapon. I can also see why many of the students look up to you as a fighter.”

“You ain’t too shabby either, Seteth. I can see why the kid looks up to you as her teacher too.”

The two men shook hands, which is when the crowds began to disperse, aside from a few people. Claude could see that Dimitri had remained behind, Jeralt’s technique clearly having drawn his attention and admiration. As well as that, Flayn had stayed and was offering to heal if either of the men had hurt themselves, and Byleth was still sat on a bench at the sidelines.

Claude went over to Byleth, and sat down beside her. “Hey there. You looked excited a few minutes ago, now you’re looking down. Piece of gold for your thoughts?” he asked, pulling a piece of gold out and twirling it between his fingers. She sighed, and grabbed hold of it, much to his shock.

“It was really fun to watch… Until they started talking about me when fighting. I get that it’s important that I needed to be kept safe from a group of people who wanted to kill me, but… I suppose it was the phrasing which bothered me. It sounded like I was just someone who had to be protected and that I wasn’t capable of looking after myself in any capacity,” she muttered, before sitting back and stretching her arms above her head. “I doubt my father even properly knows about the Sword of the Creator yet. He knows that I can use a ‘special sword’, just not that it is _that one_.”

“Well, when you get the chance, tell him. Show him, even,” he shrugged, before a grin crept onto his face. “Oh, and speaking of your father, it appears that we have company.”

Jeralt raised an eyebrow at what he heard of Claude’s remark as he approached the two, before shaking his head. “Hey, kid. And…” Jeralt paused for a moment, before glancing at Claude almost suspiciously. “Claude von Riegan, right? The kid has told me a lot about you.”

Claude awkwardly laughed, and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, that’s me.”

Byleth sighed, and stood up. “You looked almost as though you didn’t even lose three months out there… Are you okay? I don’t want you to push yourself…” She whispered, before giving him a small smile.

“I feel fine. The only things bothering me is an ache on the back of my head from fighting in Gaspard lands and this cut on my hand that I don’t recall getting.”

Claude could tell straight away that Byleth wasn’t happy with what Jeralt had said, as her hands clenched slightly.

After a moment, Byleth sighed and took hold of his hand, and looked closely at the cut he was referring to. “What happened in that fight, father? Do you think it was the head injury which knocked you out for all that time?”

“I was definitely knocked out by the attack, but I doubt that was what had me out for the count for so long,” Jeralt said, before reaching his hand behind his head to rub at the place where he was talking about. “I was approached by a girl in a similar uniform to you two and all the other brats here, and she was trying to act all innocent to get me to ‘help her find her class’. When I didn’t ‘help’, she started talking about you, before running behind me and getting an attack in before I had the chance to react.”

This had piqued Claude’s interest, so he stood up and asked a question. “The Golden Deer class were in Gaspard territory at about the time where Byleth said she left there, and as house leader I would be able to easily identify who it could be. What did she look like?” He felt a foreboding feeling over him as he asked, knowing full well that the only female students in the Golden Deer who were there on that day was Hilda, Marianne, Lysithea, and Leonie. Jeralt would have recognised Leonie, so she was ruled out. He didn’t want to make accusations, but if it were a female Golden Deer student responsible…

“Give me a second to think…” Jeralt mumbled, before he shook his head. “I can’t recall off the top of my head. I remember that she used a dagger to hit me over the head though.”

“Out of the Golden Deer... Only Byleth keeps a dagger, and she obviously joined us _after _this had happened, and none of us brought a dagger as Seteth chose our weapons for us... There’s always the possibility that somebody had decided to sneak along though, because it was very hard to see in all of that fog,” Claude muttered, managing to put the doubt about his classmates out of his head. “We should keep an eye on everyone from the other Houses, see who uses a dagger... The mock battle between the houses later this month may be a good time.”

Byleth nodded along, before she looked over towards the training ground doors. “Let’s eat before it’s too late, father. Once Raphael gets there, not much food gets left behind. Claude, do you want to join us?”

“Well, I've already ate... But I do have a few _particular _questions that you said that I was allowed to ask your father...”

As Byleth began to grumble to herself, Jeralt started laughing. “Ah, is that about the bet you told me about? I've got quite a few tales about what this one got up to as a child... Hah, remember the time that you _somehow _managed to sneak a dog from a nearby village into the camp? Those villagers were not happy…”

Claude’s eyes lit up in amusement. Oh, this was going to be fun.


	19. The unspoken and spoken past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After lessons for the day, Byleth finds herself at the end of a series of probing questions from another student. Claude ends up on damage control as a result.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told myself I would update this on Wednesday, and it technically is Wednesday now so fuck it (even if it's like 3am in the morning)... It’s far too hot in England right now. I'm just lying on the sofa watching Mulan on TV to avoid going upstairs 'cause it's like a sauna up there and I simply can't sleep...
> 
> I also made the terrible mistake of liking to use italics to emphasise words or imply the thoughs of characters, whilst uploading this on my damn phone.

As the mock battle grew closer and closer, the atmosphere at Garreg Mach seemed to return to some semblance of normality. The most prominent change had been that the Death Knight hadn’t reappeared, and seemed to be gone for good. No longer were people seeing guards everywhere, nor did they have to fear that they could potentially be the next kidnapping victim.

There had been two major changes, however – as Byleth and Jeralt were set to stay at Garreg Mach for the foreseeable future, Byleth’s position as an Officer’s Academy student had been made permanent. She had also been given the option to either join the Knights of Seiros, or to take on the role of a professor once she graduated. Jeralt, meanwhile, had been instated as the new captain for the knights. 

Claude could see the subtle hints of excitement on Byleth’s face when she came to tell him the news about her staying after class one day. Nobody had actually known that she was originally only meant to be a student temporarily, until she and her father had discussions with Rhea about the situation which had their lives at risk, but Claude felt relieved that Byleth was set to stay all the same.

“If you had to pick right now what you would do, what would you pick and why?”

“Hmm... Professor. I mean, I'd like being a knight as my father once was one, and is now one again... But as mercenaries, I was his right hand. If I were made a knight, I wouldn’t be able to have something like that... At most I'd be able to get a similar sort of rank as Catherine, but that would be because of my sword, not because of what I've achieved,” Byleth explained, bringing her hand up to her chin. “Also... From my experience as a student, I already know a lot of the topics being covered from being a mercenary since I was old enough to pick up a weapon.”

Nodding along, a sly grin formed on Claude’s face. “Okay then, Teach.”

He was quickly glared at. “Ha ha, very funny, _Khalid_.”

“Hey! Don’t call me that out loud!”

“Don’t call me ‘Teach' then, I'm no professor yet. Not until the Great Tree Moon next year, _at the earliest_.”

The pair fell silent after that, the only noise being as Claude changed his sitting position so that his back was against the desk. They both had things that they wanted to say and wanted to ask, but they weren’t as cheerful as the conversation that they had moments earlier. 

Claude knew that there were people after Byleth, but was curious as to why. Obviously, she was quite unique in that she somehow had a crest lost to history and in turn could wield _the_ Sword of the Creator, but that wasn’t even known before she came to the Officer’s Academy. There had to have been something else. He also had something that he wanted to ask about once they had all finished at the Officer’s Academy.

Byleth was wanting to know why Claude was insistent on remaining involved in the weird goings on with her family. He had already been almost kidnapped, almost killed once because of his association with her, and no doubt once those people after her heart discovered hers and her father’s location, there would be more danger than that. Those people were straight up murderers.

Before either of them could find a way to articulate what they were wanting to say, somebody appeared in the doorway of the Golden Deer classroom and began to make their way over to them both.

“Good afternoon, Byleth. How are you doing today?” Edelgard smiled, before her eyes turned towards Claude. “And I suppose hello to you too.”  
Claude rolled his eyes, whilst Byleth gave the other house leader a slight smile.

“I’m fine, Edelgard. Are you doing well?” Byleth asked back, which was responded to with a nod, and Edelgard sitting down on her opposite side at the desk.

“I hope that you do not mind, but I have something which I wish to ask of you,” Edelgard began, before clearing her throat. “In the Black Eagles class today, we had the entire afternoon dedicated to learning more about crests – expected, with Professor Hanneman teaching us. At one point, the discussion turned to the topic of bloodlines. All crests are carried through bloodlines, all the way back to the days of the Saints, Nemesis, and the Ten Elites. At some point, you and your crest became our main focus in the lesson. You have the Crest of Flames, an illusive crest thought to have been held by Nemesis, and Nemesis alone.”

“I think most of us know this already, Princess,” Claude yawned, holding his hands behind his head as he leaned back. “Do you think that Seteth _hasn’t_ already tried drilling that into our minds?”

Edelgard tutted. “I am not talking to you, Claude. I was providing context to what I was wanting to ask.”

Byleth sighed as the two house leaders clashed at either side of her, before she gave Claude a nudge with her elbow as a way of telling him to just let Edelgard speak.

“Thank you, Byleth… Anyway, as I was saying… If crests pass through bloodlines, and you have the Crest of Flames, does this mean that Jeralt has a crest? Everyone was asking whether this was the case, so we thought it best to ask you.”

It seemed that the question had managed to get Claude’s attention, as he now had an eye open as he listened in. It was a good point.

For a moment, Byleth was silent. “Crests sometimes appear before you when you are fighting, right? If that is the case, then yes, I believe he has one. It isn’t the same as mine though,” Byleth began, before looking around. She then pointed towards a nearby Church of Seiros banner. “It looks like that.”

Both Claude and Edelgard were puzzled by her remark. A father and child of the same bloodline, but different crests? 

“How… strange. Your father has the Crest of Seiros?” Edelgard questioned, holding out her hand and using some magic to make her own crest appear. “That crest is held by those of the Hresvelg bloodline. My family. I likely would have known if Jeralt was related to us, so… how could that be possible? And how come your crest is different to his? Does that mean your mother also has a crest?”

Claude bit his lip at Edelgard’s growing amount of questions, but his eyes widened when he saw Byleth tense up at the final question. He tried to grab hold of her wrist as she stood up, but she pulled her arm away as she silently left the classroom.

Edelgard was frowning as she looked towards the doors. “What was that about?”

He groaned. “Her mother is a really touchy subject for her and Jeralt, and I would lose all the trust I’ve built up with her if I told you why,” he explained, standing up himself with the intention of finding Byleth. “Goodbye, Edelgard. And also, Hubert, don’t stand in dark corners like that. You look creepy as hell.”

* * *

* * *

Byleth let out a loud, shaking breath when she reached the door leading to her room. As soon as she had left the Golden Deer classroom, she had run as fast as she could to her room. She could feel anger and sadness inside her chest, but her face did not betray her emotions. 

She had reached to grab hold of her room keys, but had found her hand shaking slightly as she tried to put the key into the lock. Then, to add on to that great string of luck, her key became jammed when she tried to turn it. She couldn’t turn it to open the door, nor could she turn it to pull it out. 

After a few moments, she gave off a frustrated noise as she hit at the door.

“Byleth? I heard a noise from over here, and… Ah, I see. The key is stuck. Mine tends to do that at times, allow me to help,” a calm sounding voice came from behind her, before she saw a gloved hand reach out, jiggle the key a few times, before it moved into the position to open the door. “There. The trick is to shift it around until you no longer feel the resistance in the lock.”

She turned around, and saw Dimitri, a gentle smile on his face laced with concern. 

“Thank you, Dimitri… That’s good to know,” she whispered, pushing at the handle to open the door. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you from whatever you were doing, I’ve just been a bit… frustrated after something which happened a few minutes ago.”

“No, there was no problem. I was on my way to see Dedue, and his room is only next-door to you,” he said, before frowning. “Only if you are okay with telling me, what happened? Has Claude done something? I rarely see the two of you apart.”

“Oh! No, Claude hasn’t done anything, I just… got asked a question about my family which didn’t sit too well with me. I just needed to get away from that situation before I felt the urge to turn to a weapon.”

It was at this point that there was the sound of footsteps nearby, and Claude running over to the pair. “Byleth! There you are!” he shouted, before taking hold of his knees once he caught up. “Are you okay? The way that you left after you were asked that question… I was really worried…”

Byleth turned to Claude, and gave him a tired smile. “I’m fine, Claude… I just want some time to wind down in my room,” she smiled, before turning to Dimitri once more. “Thank you again for telling me about that trick with the keys and lock, Dimitri. I won’t keep you from going to see Dedue any longer.”

Dimitri smiled and nodded, before walking over to the neighbouring door and quickly entering the room once the door opened, leaving the two Golden Deer students alone. 

Afterwards, Claude took hold of Byleth’s wrist, and gave her a worried smile. “Care for some company?”

“I...” she looked between him and the door, then slowly nodded. “I would, yes... As long as you’re not planning on asking any questions.”

Byleth fully pushed open the door, and stepped inside, Claude being pulled inside with her before she closed it. That was followed by her pulling the glasses she was wearing off her face, and putting them on her desk before falling down onto her bed. 

Claude took hold of the chair at the desk, and sat on it backwards so that he could place his arms and chin on the backrest. “I actually quite liked the stories that Jeralt told me about you a few days ago. I can’t help but feel they were more from the perspective of an embarrassed father though...”

For a moment, Byleth ever so slightly smirked, and nodded. “I basically felt nothing. What was there to be embarrassed about if I didn’t feel that way? I must confess I do feel embarrassment in hindsight, but at the time...”

“Please tell me that the time you fell into the water in Derdriu and had to be saved isn’t one of those times. I kinda wish I was in Fódlan at that point to have seen that...”

Byleth sighed, and rubbed at her forehead. “My dad missed out a few details in that story... As he said, he had heard stories that a young teenager had fallen into the docks, but he didn’t think that it could have been me until I was returned to him completely drenched...” she said, before sitting up and sighing. “Want to know the reason why I fell into the water?”

“Please! You can’t withhold these essential details, Byleth!”

“I was trying to pet a cat.”

“Huh?” Claude was surprised at her words, but he found himself imagining it very well – a thirteen year old Byleth crouching down trying to pet a cat by the waterside. 

“It wasn’t happy with the attention and darted away when I reached down. I lost my balance, and into the water I went,” she explained, making a slight hand gesture indicating her falling. “And, do you know who had to save me?”

“Do share.”

“Well, I assume that the name Godfrey is familiar to you, being a member of the Riegan family?”

Claude was silent for a moment, before he had to stifle a laugh. “My uncle had to save you? Wow, that... That’s actually quite funny to think of. I barely know anything about him, so I suppose that could be the first story I've properly heard about him not in relation to his death.”

“Yeah... He had to drag me out of the water and I got a bit of a lecture by an older man who was with your uncle about being so reckless near water. I’m having trouble remembering the details but I _think_ it could have been your grandfather, before they both helped me to find my father. My father had to avoid Derdriu for a good year or so after that point, because we would get recognised for that incident rather than as mercenaries when we went back again over the next few weeks.”

By that point, Claude was trying to calm down his laughter at the story. As much as he wasn’t that close to his family from Fódlan, not including his mother, it was quite enjoyable hearing about them from the context of Byleth being a dumb kid. 

It also made him happy that she no longer seemed to be thinking about those questions which Edelgard was asking her. 

Then... he realised something. This was one of the first times he had found himself truly caring for anyone in Fódlan. Sure, he had friends and associates, and at first his relationship with Byleth was him just trying to get information from her about mysterious goings on... But at some point, it had changed to a genuine friendship which actually meant something to him. 

He stood up from the chair, and then made his way over to the bed and sat down beside her.

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better now, Claude... Thank you...”

He felt his body tense up when she leaned her head on his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around one of his. 

“N-No problem, but... You were the one who cheered yourself up, you were the one who told the story...” he whispered, not sure on how to react to her actions. “Uh... Are you comfortable there?”

“Yeah... I'm comfy. You’re comfy, Claude... warm too.”  
He knew that she didn’t have many social interactions before she came to Garreg Mach, so he had no idea if what she was doing was entirely intentional, or if she wasn’t aware of any sort of... implications if she was seen holding onto him like that. 

After a few moments, he gave in to her sudden clinginess, and moved his free arm to around her shoulders. 

_There was nothing in the Officer’s Academy rules saying that students couldn’t hug, was there? _

_They were friends, and friends could hug! Hilda and Marianne hugged a lot, what was different about this, other than it being in the privacy of Byleth’s room, fully aware that her father was present in Garreg Mach and that she was the Archbishop’s favourite student..._

_Friends. Yes. They were friends. Best friends... _


	20. Hunt for the dagger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the Battle of the Eagle and Lion arrived. There was one rule in the battle - the aim was to make the students in the other houses yield, not kill or injure them.
> 
> As Claude and Byleth hunt for the student with the dagger who had played a part in Jeralt's kidnapping four moons earlier, someone doesn't get the memo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've actually re-written this chapter three times, with different ideas of how to continue the plot towards the point that I wanted it to get to. The first version was based the day after the previous chapter, with Byleth and Claude dealing with rumours as part of the aftermath of Claude visiting her in her room whilst preparing for the battle. The third version was basically just some father-daughter bonding with Byleth and Jeralt as they spoke about Sitri the day before the mock battle, with Claude being curious and wanting to join in.
> 
> I decided to go with the second version. All I can really say is that it is the somewhat grittier version of the three...
> 
> There's also some definite canon divergence here!

“As a reminder, the aim in the battle is not to kill the students in the other houses. You are to make them yield, at which point they will be counted as defeated and taken off the battlefield. This is a mock battle, not an actual one,” Seteth explained to the Golden Deer students as they took their positions on their assigned starting area in Gronder Field. They were not on the same strip of land as the Blue Lions and Black Eagles, there was a river which separated them meaning that there were bridges that they would have to cross. “I shall not be guiding you in the battle either – listen to Claude, as he is your House Leader. I shall be with the other professors, Lady Rhea, and Sir Jeralt on the hills overlooking the battle.”

Upon hearing who Seteth would be with, Byleth’s eyes strayed towards the place that he was talking about and smiled. Knowing that her father would be watching would be interesting – he had only seen her battle dynamics with mercenaries, not with the likes of students and people she considered friends.

“I wish you all luck in this battle. Hopefully, the Golden Deer will claim their first mock battle victory today.”

With that, Seteth walked away, and Claude began to brief everyone on the plan. Byleth already knew the plan, she had ended up speaking with him at length about it the day before, mostly because of their secret priority in the battle.

“_So… You shall be on the lookout for a student with a dagger. Of course, it is not any of the ones which you are sided with…” _For the first time in a good while, Sothis made her presence known and was hovering around her head. “_Fine then, it is decided. I shall help you and your partner in locating your father’s assailant.”_

Byleth remained silent, only slightly nodding to let Sothis know that she had heard, and to not let her classmates think that she had turned insane and was talking to herself.

“So… That leaves Byleth, Hilda, and Ignatz on the right-hand side. You three will likely be facing up against the likes of Hubert, Petra, Monica, and possibly Ferdinand, dependent on where Edelgard has put him. If the situation becomes dire, at least one of Byleth or Hilda can separate to divert some of the attention. Ignatz will need cover for if someone like Petra gets close, whilst he aims for those behind the Black Eagles’ front lines. I’ll try to help out if I am able to claim the central hill from Bernadetta, and keep Ashe away from the ballista. If any of you need to heal, Byleth has some proficiency in healing magic,” Claude explained, before looking across all of the Golden Deer. “Are we ready to give the signal that we are prepared to start?”

* * *

* * *

Surprisingly, it hadn’t taken much for Claude to claim the central hill of Gronder Field for the Golden Deer. As it turned out, just having a bow pointed at her was enough to make Bernadetta scream at the top of her lungs, drop her own bow, then crouch down yelling that she yielded. He almost felt bad that it was that easy to get this advantage, but he didn’t have time to think about that.

As Bernadetta was escorted off the battlefield, Claude prepared his own bow for use on the ballista whilst he looked around. Somebody out of all of the students here used a dagger, and had been the one who had slipped into the Golden Deer’s mission and played a part in Jeralt’s kidnapping four moons earlier. Having this hill was a great way to look across the entire battlefield to establish who held which weapons, without alerting anyone to his suspicious glances.

The only thing he was certain of at this point was that Bernadetta was definitely _not _the person he was looking for.

As Byleth was battling on his right, towards the west, he decided to focus on the east, where the Blue Lions were positioned.

The first two which came into sight were Ingrid and Sylvain, obviously because they were mounted and could move further and quicker. Both of them held lances, though Sylvain did appear to also have magic in his arsenal. That was intriguing to Claude, as he hadn’t seen a magic-wielding cavalier before this point. _Perhaps he could nudge Lorenz towards doing something similar._

Two down, six to go.

Annette, Felix, and Mercedes eventually made their way through the trees, Felix advancing somewhat aggressively towards Lysithea. Claude fired the ballista in his direction, and watched as the swordsman’s sword clattered to the ground as he tried to avoid being shot. Annette’s attention turned towards him as a result of the attack, which is when he realised that she had been using magic, and was also wielding an _axe. _Just how she had the strength to wield an axe was beyond him, but he knew he didn’t have the time to question it, as Mercedes was now aiming towards him with a bow.

So, five of the Blue Lions did not wield a dagger. He just needed to check on Dedue, Dimitri, and Ashe, though he had a strong feeling that it would be none of them. Ashe had been asked to accompany the Golden Deer that day, and had remained with Raphael the entire time, just as he had been asked to. So, Claude supposed that it was six who didn’t have the weapon.

As if on cue, the final members of the Blue Lions emerged. Dimitri bore a lance, though it was clear that he was still having trouble following on from that bandit attack near Remire Village all those moons ago based on the way he was holding his weapon. Dedue had an axe, but also a sword as backup.

The Blue Lions were innocent in the attack of Jeralt.

Before he could focus on the members of the Black Eagles to the south of him, there was a loud shout across the battlefield, coming from… Hilda?

He dropped his bow when the noise of trumpets echoed around, indicating that the battle was to stop immediately.

Something bad must have happened.

* * *

* * *

Byleth had to follow Claude’s last resort orders as she, Hilda, and Ignatz fought against the Black Eagles. They had found themselves in a precarious situation, so she had decided to separate herself from the other two as a distraction. She had to, anyway – she still needed to find out who could have been wielding a dagger out of the other students.

Already she had faced Petra, who had used a sword. Sothis had informed her that the likes of Ferdinand and Hubert were innocent too, from when she had taken the time to hover over the approaching enemies.

She still needed to investigate Dorothea, Edelgard, Caspar, Linhardt, Monica, and Bernadetta (though she had a feeling that Claude likely already had her covered, as he was trying to claim the ballista). Even though her father said that he believed it was a female student, his memories had been fuzzy, so she knew that all of them needed to be looked at.

_“You are being pursued, Byleth. A girl of red hair, the one found with your father that day. Monica, I believe her name is?” _Sothis called out, emerging to her side as she floated along in a position that made her look like she was lying down. “_Prepare to battle her. She is quick – pull out your sword! Now, ideally!”_

Byleth tutted, grabbed hold of the hilt of her sword, and drew it out just as she turned around to see Monica lunging at her. Fortunately, she also had a shield on her, so she brought it up and stopped the dagger from making contact. She wasn’t ready to yield just yet.

“_Look! The weapon!”_

Byleth’s eyes widened at the sight of the dagger in Monica’s hands. It was obviously small, but looked deadly – the blade jagged, but the hilt large and heavy enough to cause substantial damage if it hit a vulnerable area… such as the back of the head…

_Just as her father had said had happened to him._

“Admiring my weapon? You should! It’s helped me out in many a situation,” Monica smiled, diving in for another attack. This time, Byleth brought her sword up and the sound of the blades clashing echoed around the nearby trees. “It has kept me safe when I have been attacked by thugs,” she laughed, pulling back before swinging again. “It has helped me in intimidating people who get in my way…”

Byleth swung her sword after Monica’s next attack, her teeth gritted. Sothis was watching from the sidelines, a deep frown on her face. Byleth’s emotions were beginning to control her actions, which were going to put her in a difficult position soon enough.

“Why, it has even helped me bring down the legendary Blade Breaker, with a swift hit to the head.”

Sothis shouted out for Byleth to pay attention when she froze upon hearing her father’s nickname.

“Now it’s going to help me in killing the Ashen Demon.”

Before Byleth could react, the sound of a weapon piercing through flesh filled her ears, followed by an intense pain in her side. She could feel both cold and warmth where the dagger had been stabbed into her body, before feeling Monica pull it back out with a triumphant smirk on her face.

Sothis had very quickly faded from her vision, which was very quickly turning blurred and foggy. That was her sign that there was something more going on here than she expected.

Then she remembered as she fell down to her knees, tears down her face as she brought her hands to rest against the heavily bleeding wound. She attempted to use the power which Sothis had granted her, and reverse the flow of time, but… nothing happened. She then tried to channel some healing magic though her hands and into the wounds, but… still nothing.

“I made sure that before the battle, I cast a silencing spell on my weapon… You won’t be able to use any magic for now, I’m afraid. Not even the weird time altering magic that you have. My bad,” Monica laughed loudly, before walking away. “I’ll be back for the crest stone when you’ve finished with dying, okay? Bye!”

Byleth was unsure of what Monica meant about a crest stone, but couldn't focus on that. She needed to get help.

She was wheezing as she had to crawl across the floor towards the trees which kept her concealed from the rest of the battlefield. She didn’t want to die! She couldn’t! Not now… She needed to tell her father and Claude that Monica was the one that they were looking for!

She fell down onto her front when she finally reached the grass, and in the distance, she could see Hilda and Ignatz looking for her. They had finished dealing with their opponents.

With a small whine, she tried to wave for their attention.

Her vision was growing dark. She was feeling lightheaded. A lot of blood had been lost.

“Byleth!” Ignatz had finally spotted her.

“Oh no!” Hilda had run over, and had noticed the blood staining her hand and her clothes.

“We need to get her help; nobody was meant to get hurt in this battle!”

“I-I know! Byleth, hold on!” Hilda panicked, before looking around. She then screamed as loud as she could for the attention of those overlooking the battle on the hill.

The last thing that Byleth heard before losing consciousness was the sound of the trumpets bringing the mock battle to a halt.


	21. Losses and gains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sothis gives Byleth a chance to survive, whilst Jeralt and Claude prepare for the worst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad leaving the last chapter where it was, so schedules be damned, I'm updating again today!

Byleth felt heavy as her senses slowly began to return to her.

First came feeling – as though gravity was pulling her down onto something that felt like stone, whilst her body was cold. So, so cold.

Afterwards came smell. It was a nostalgic one, similar to when she would wake up after a night of camping in Faerghus during mid-winter following a night of snow.

Gradually hearing returned, with her breathing being the only noise she could hear over the sound of somebody pacing.

Taste was hardly relevant; she could taste the insides of her mouth as she usually could.

Finally, she found herself with the energy to open her eyes. Her surroundings were dark, with hints of green bordering the side of her vision. She turned her head towards the colour, and tiredly squinted. She was lying on something which… looked familiar. From the dreams which she would have when Sothis and Claude began to appear in her mind all those moons ago.

A… throne.

_Why was she asleep on a throne?_

“Finally! It is about time that you awakened!” A voice called out from the direction in which she wasn’t facing. The footsteps grew closer, before she suddenly found herself with Sothis staring down at her. “First you allow your emotions to get the better of you, making you vulnerable. Then you allowed yourself to be stabbed by that blade which appeared to have been cursed. And now we find ourselves in an _extremely _difficult situation!”

“Wh…What…?” Byleth rubbed her eyes for a moment, before using her arm to push Sothis aside so that she could have the space to sit up. “I… don’t understand what you mean. I remember that Monica stabbed me, but not much more…”

Sothis huffed, before pointing at Byleth’s face. “Did you not hear me?! The blade which you were stabbed with was _cursed! _Your physical form is in a precarious situation… At present, it is holding onto life, but barely just. You are being healed, which is the only reason you – no, _we – _are still alive,” she muttered, exasperation clear in her voice. “The curse sealed away your magic, and is making it impossible for you to wake up without intervention from a more powerful being.”

Byleth was silent as Sothis then turned her back, her long hair trailing behind her as she descended the steps. She pulled herself up to her feet, and slowly followed.

“You are fortunate, Byleth… You find yourself in a position in which you can return to life, but there shall be a cost. I cannot recall much about myself, but I know that I am capable of helping your consciousness in returning to your body,” Sothis muttered, turning to face Byleth with a sad smile. “I can transfer a portion of my power over to you. In a way, our souls will be bound together closer than before. You shall no longer be able to see me, but my voice shall remain.”

As she listened to Sothis’ words, Byleth began to stare down at her feet, before walking over to her and pulling her into a hug.

“I will repay you for all of these times you have saved my life, Sothis… I swear to you that I will.”

Sothis was caught by surprise at Byleth’s words, which was followed by a sigh and the embrace being returned. “You can make up for it by keeping yourself alive, and listening to me when I talk to you. I will not have the sacrifice of some of my powers and my physical presence made in vain, do you hear me?”

“I understand.”

With a deep breath, Byleth released her grasp from Sothis, and took a step back.

“Close your eyes… And when you open them again, I believe that you will find yourself in the company of your father, and that boy which you love.”

“I… I’m not in love with Claude. He’s my best friend-!”

“Yes yes, and the sky is green. Now hurry up! Shut your eyes before your body gives in!”

* * *

* * *

Claude hadn’t cried this much in a long time. Not since he was a child, from what he could recall. His eyes were sore and red, not to mention showing the clear signs of sleep-deprivation. His head was aching, and his throat sore.

He had been shaken when he was informed upon the return to Garreg Mach that Byleth was in a critical condition, having almost been murdered during the mock battle. No progress had been made in finding out _who _had done such a thing, but he believed that it would have been the dagger-wielding person that they had been looking for.

For over a day, he had begged and pleaded with Rhea and Seteth to be allowed to see her in the infirmary. Nobody aside from Jeralt, the Archbishop, and healers had been allowed to go near her as her wound was healed and the blood cleaned away. Eventually, they relented – but it was not a decision which they had made, it had been something that Jeralt had asked for. He had said that Byleth had never had friends before, and that he didn’t want her to be without one of her closest ones whilst in a fragile state.

As it turned out, Jeralt was in a similar state to him. Worried for her, and avoiding sleep for if she were to wake up.

Five days after the mock battle, a healer came to check upon the injuries. The internal wounds had been healed up, and now a scar was on her side from the injury. However, her condition simply wasn’t improving.

“I am afraid that there is nothing further that we can do for your daughter, Sir Jeralt. May I suggest… that you make her comfortable. It is likely that she will not make it through the night.”

Claude watched as Jeralt’s shoulders shook, before he covered his face. The sounds of his crying were haunting. He couldn’t blame him. He had lost his wife when Byleth was born. Now Byleth was about to die herself.

All that Claude found himself doing was holding onto her hand, the shock of what had been said not completely sinking in. He felt that now was the time where he would have to say his final goodbyes, and allow Jeralt to be with her in her final moments, but… he couldn’t bear to leave her.

“She… She’s barely just twenty-one…” Jeralt muttered, his voice laced with sadness and despair. “She’s barely lived a life longer than her own mother… And already…” Claude watched as he shook his head and clenched his fists.

“When… was her birthday?”

Jeralt glanced over to him, the emotions in his eyes being hard to determine. “Twentieth of the Horsebow Moon, so... a little over a moon ago… She knew when it was, but we never celebrated…”

Claude silently nodded, before glancing towards the door. “Would you want me to leave…? I don’t want to be intruding when… it happens.”

Much to his surprise, Jeralt laughed quietly. “Don’t be an idiot, kid. You’re her closest friend. I don’t think she’d forgive me if I let you leave. She would never show emotions well, but I know that look in her eyes when she’s with you. You really mean something to her.”

Everything was silent in the infirmary after that, as the evening turned to night. At one point, Jeralt moved so that he was sat on the bed, and pulled Byleth into a sitting position with her head against his chest so that he could embrace her when her time came. Claude remained sat at the side of the bed, watching over her slow breathing.

Gradually, it slowed down more. Claude could feel the sting of tears in the corner of his eyes as he watched his friend reach the end of her life in her father’s arms. He had seen death before, but nothing had been as sad and painful as this.

Eventually it reached a point where her breathing simply stopped. Jeralt tensed up, before tightening his grasp of her. Claude could only dig his fingers into his knees as he shut his eyes.

But then… There was a loud gasp.

His eyes shot open at the noise, and could see that Jeralt had been just as startled by it too. It was then that he watched as Byleth’s arm moved to grasp at her chest, her breathing returning just as quickly as it had stopped.

“B-Byleth…?” Jeralt’s voice came out as a panicked whisper as he loosened his grasp of her. “You… You’re alive?”

“I… I think so…?” Her eyes slowly opened, and she seemed to be in a slight daze as she tried to figure out what was going on. “What’s happening?”

Claude was unsure of how to react to the goings on, before answering her question as Jeralt seemed too stunned to even speak. “You were stabbed during the mock battle… And… we were told that you were going to die from the injury…”

His words seemed to come as a shock to her, before she freed herself from her father’s grasp to pull up the side of her shirt to look at where she had been stabbed. She felt around in a panic, her eyes widening at the feel of the scarred skin. That was followed by her taking a deep breath, and looking between both him and Jeralt. “I… I am so sorry if I worried you both…”

“Kid… Don’t apologise. This wasn’t your fault…”

After a few minutes of tears, apologies, and relief of Byleth's awakening, Jeralt excused himself in order to get food and drinks. Both he and Claude had missed the opportunity to eat that evening, and Byleth obviously hadn’t eaten since before the mock battle. That left Claude and Byleth alone in the infirmary.

“Claude… I know who it is now. The one who attacked my father that day. It’s the same person who stabbed me, with the same dagger…” she whispered, turning to hang her legs off the bed on the side that Claude was sat at. “Monica von Ochs. I had to separate from Hilda and Ignatz whilst dealing with the Black Eagles, and she followed me into some trees… I noticed her weapon, which is when she started to brag about what she’d done with it. When I heard her mention attacking my father with it, I lowered my guard, and… well…”

For a moment, Claude remained silent before shaking his head. “We can focus on that later… All that matters is that you are alive right now. And…” he looked at her, tears in the corner of his eyes. “I’m so happy that you’re still here. So many things have been going through my head since the healer told me and Jeralt that you weren’t going to make it through the night. I… I don’t want to lose you. You’re the only person in Fódlan who really means something to me… You’re my best friend, and I- I think that I-!” He stopped mid-sentence, coming to the realisation of what he was saying without thinking. He then further realised… that he didn’t really mind that he was saying what he was.

Instead of with words, he finished his sentence with an action. He stood up, placed one hand beside her on the bed, but took hold of her cheek with the other as he leaned in to press a small kiss against her lips. Byleth simply stared at him with wide eyes, which he noted were green – _he was certain that her eyes were blue, so since when were they green? – _before she smiled at him and returned the kiss.

It was obvious that they were new to this and very inexperienced, in that they were rather hesitant. Byleth wanted to do something with her hands, so all that she did was shift one of her hands onto the one of his on the bed, and left her other hand on her lap.

They soon parted, knowing that Jeralt would be back soon before Claude laughed awkwardly. “I, uh… I’m normally much better with my words than that, but now that that is out of the way… I… love you. I only realised when I thought that I was going to lose you…”

Byleth smiled at him, and took hold of his hands. “I don’t know if me or my father have ever mentioned it before, but… I’ve never had any friends. Not until I came here and met you in person… And even though we joked about it at first, I really think I’ve met the person of my dreams, both figuratively and literally. You’re so smart, strong, quick-witted, and you even trusted me with secrets about you that nobody else in Fódlan knows…” she whispered, a slight blush on her face.

_Claude hadn’t seen her face like that before. He… really liked the sight of her blushing._

“I love you too, Claude…”

They didn’t have much chance to say anything further, as there was a sigh behind them. “It’s about time you both said something. Before that mock battle you would look at each other like a pair of love-sick puppies.”

“Father!” Byleth turned around in a panic, whereas Claude quickly took a step away from her. “H-How long have you been-?!”

“Long enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing like nearly losing the one that you love for a confession to happen, eh?


	22. Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude wants to do anything he can to help keep Byleth safe, especially after her brush with death and them now being a couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say, each and every comment I've received for this fic means the absolute world to me. I'm absolutely terrible with responding to them, as I never quite know what to say a majority of the time, but I am so so thankful for every single comment! Thank you to everyone who is reading this too!!!

“There shouldn’t be much going on this moon... As a result of the chaos that was the mock battle, there isn’t any major missions being given to any of the Houses,” Claude said to Byleth on the first day since she was allowed to leave the infirmary. She had decided to go straight to the greenhouse, so he joined her. “Classes are still going on, but I've managed to get myself a few free days thanks to your father. He’s awfully persuasive, and how he managed to get Seteth to agree with that is beyond me,” he laughed, taking a seat on one of the plant borders where there was nothing growing.

“Probably going to have all the missed assignments on our desks once we’re both back in lessons. I know that’s what he asked for in my case,” Byleth shrugged, walking over to a plant bearing fruit. “He is used to having to be persuasive. We would often have to do that when talking about job conditions and pay as mercenaries. Some nobles would often try to massively underpay us when they tried hiring us for jobs. Some would see sense when he spoke to them, and at times go above and beyond by covering the costs of weapon maintenance and inns where we would spend the night. Others would say that they would only agree to a pay rise if they could spend a night with the sole female mercenary, which he would respond with using his fist whilst saying that we will never work for them, and will warn other mercenary groups from working with them too.”

Claude raised his eyebrow, in shock at the state of some of the nobles in Fódlan. If what she said was true, in addition to other stories he had heard from other students, some nobles really were scummy. “They... actually did that? They said that they would only pay a decent amount if they could sleep with you? That’s... disgusting. It’s things like that which really make my blood boil... People in power should use it to make things equal... not to manipulate people just doing their jobs and trying to get by.”

Byleth nodded, having now picked some fruit from the plant before sitting down beside him. He noticed that she had picked some strawberries, and smiled as she picked one up and happily ate it. “Luckily, I've found myself with one of Fódlan’s good nobles – one that my father doesn’t want to punch in the face either,” she laughed, before picking up the plumpest of the berries. “Care for one?”

He nodded, and she smirked. “Tilt your head back and open your mouth wide, Claude.”

Now he had a raised eyebrow, but still did as she said. She then moved the berry over to his mouth, letting him bite it when it was close enough. That was followed by them both bursting out laughing – Byleth because there was a trail of strawberry juice trailing from the corner of his lips, and Claude because she was laughing. It was infectious, and he loved the sound of her laugh.

_To think, less than three days earlier, he was preparing for her death._

It didn’t take long for the laughing to stop, as Byleth grabbed hold of her side and whined quietly. The laughter had strained at the scarred wound, and had started to hurt again.

Claude noticed this quickly, before replacing the hand holding onto the injury with his as he used his other arm to wipe his lips.

After a few minutes, Claude sighed quietly. “You know that you were given the option to become a professor at the Officer’s Academy, or to join the Knights of Seiros when we graduate...?” he asked, a hint of sadness on his face. She nodded; her concern clear as day. “I want to add a third option to the mix.”

“You... do?”

He nodded as he glanced at her, his face showing clear signs of worry such as a furrowed brow and a frown, but his eyes betraying them with a light of hopefulness. “Come with me to Derdriu. I know that you’re at Garreg Mach for safety, but I can also help there... I've got my fair share of people after me too, but together? I imagine we would be untouchable. You with the Sword of the Creator, me with my family’s relic weapon, the bow Failnaught... Hell, you can even bring your father along.”

Byleth blinked slowly, before a smile returned to her face. “I would love that... It would depend on whether Rhea decides to intervene though. Since I first held the Sword of the Creator and the whole Death Knight situation... she has been acting as though I am a belonging of the Church. My father warned me to be wary of her before I even came here, and I am beginning to see why...”

Claude listened in silence to her concerns, then nodded. “I've noticed that too. She was the one calling the shots when you were on death’s door too. If it wasn’t for your father talking to her, I wouldn’t have been allowed to see you.”

“Really...?” she gazed down at the floor, and sighed. “Unfortunately, she is the lesser of the evils, according to my father. There is one of her... But there are many who are after me and want my death – Monica being one of them, I assume.”

After a moment, Claude sighed. Their conversation had taken a sharp downturn after their laughing outburst... He decided it would be best to do something else to distract them both.

“Want me to show you something interesting we can do with some of the plants in here?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I like to mess about with some of the herbs and plants grown here up in my room. I have a talent for making potions and poisons – poisons more often than not – but I kind of have to do it on the down low as Seteth likes to do spontaneous checks of my room to make sure I am not doing exactly that following an... incident.”

“An incident?”

“The Golden Deer was stuck with Jeritza as a professor at that point. There was a mock battle the next day but we were all at our physical limits thanks to his ‘lessons'. I proposed that we did one of three plans: using what we are good at fighting with behind Jeritza’s back, making us all ‘unwell' before the battle, or making the other two houses unwell. Lorenz told Seteth at the first possible opportunity after we were thrashed in the battle.”

Byleth laughed quietly, before shaking her head. “Well, unless there was a rule saying that something like that _couldn’t _be done, what’s so wrong with that? It just makes it more reflective of actual combat. You never know when you could be sabotaged.”

“Finally! Someone who gets it!” he cheered, putting his hands on his knees as he stood up. “Now, what do you say to making... Hmm, how about a poison which can paralyse somebody? Obviously, we won’t try it on anyone for now, but I know a great way to make one.”

* * *

* * *

Up in Claude’s room, Byleth was taken aback at the state it was in. She had very few belongings, so her room was rather tidy. His room though... It was an absolute mess. Books and maps strewn everywhere; the yellow carpet stained by ink and... various other substances... His bed looked as though it hadn’t been made after he got out of it either.

“Believe it or not, my room isn’t usually _this _messy... I've just been too occupied to tidy it,” he said, glancing towards where her injury was. He had barely been in the room since the morning of the mock battle, having been with Byleth at every moment possible. The only time he had entered since then was to change his clothes. “Give me a second and I'll clear some space for us to sit.”

Claude quickly went around stacking all of the stray books together in a corner, and straightened out the blankets on his bed. He then proceeded to sit on it, and patted the empty space beside him.

Byleth went and sat by his side, then gave him a slightly confused look. “Weren’t you going to demonstrate your poison-making skills?”

“I am, I just want to sit for a few minutes,” he explained, his hand taking hold of hers. There was another reason behind him wanting to show her how he makes his poisons than just changing the topic of conversation. He had the thought that it could be useful for in the future if the likes of Monica or the Death Knight reappeared. They could be the difference between life and death, especially the paralysis one which he wanted to show her. If their enemies could be paralysed, it would give a short window of time to escape.

Silently, Byleth leaned her head against his shoulders as his fingers laced between hers, followed by her closing her eyes. “How long do you think it will be until classes end for the day?”

“About two hours, give or take a few minutes? How come?”

“I… need to thank Hilda and Ignatz. If they didn’t find me when they did, I would have bled out on Gronder Field…”

He nodded along. “I get that.” He then pulled his hand back, and stretched his arms. “Well, I guess that if I want to show you my incredible talent with poisons before then, we had better get started. You’ve still got the plants from the greenhouse, right?”

* * *

* * *

The bells rang to indicate the end of lessons at the Officer’s Academy, and it was at that point that Claude had just about finished showing Byleth the poison he had created. She had been intrigued by the process, and asking questions throughout. Claude had found it a breath of fresh air, having somebody eager to hear about his interest rather than being told off for it.

“So, what are you going to do with it now, Claude?” Byleth asked, holding onto the small vial and curiously looking at the liquid. “You say that Seteth doesn’t let you keep things like this…”

“Easy,” he smiled, reaching over to her hand, and closing her fingers around it. “You keep it. I think of either of us, it’ll be safest in your hands, and used when necessary. Think of it as… a last resort if you’re in danger.”

Byleth stared at him for a moment, biting at her lip. “Are you… certain?” she asked, getting a nod in response. She then nodded, and put it away. “Thank you, Claude.” She pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I feel much safer knowing that you’re by my side.”


	23. Returning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth's return to classes had been a cause for celebration for the Golden Deer. Claude ends up in a food coma as a result.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a generally shite day today, wrapped up lovely in a meltdown, and has been going downhill almost non-stop until this evening. There was a point where I felt that I wouldn't be able to do much writing or get around to updating any fics, but I managed to pull myself together enough to get an update out for this on time!
> 
> This chapter is more or less a light-hearted filler chapter, before the drama continues.

Byleth’s return to lessons after being stabbed was a cause for celebration for the Golden Deer. She had been absent for half of the moon, with the first week being spent in the infirmary, and the second being spent recovering with a bit more freedom and Claude’s support.

After being swarmed with hugs (not tight ones, just in case it hurt where the injury had been again) and expressions of delight, it was decided that they would have a small party in the classroom once lessons finished that day. Seteth decided that this one time he would not intervene, as Flayn was very much excited for it too, but he made it clear that should alcohol become involved that there would be swift repercussions to those who brought it.

There had been a few notable changes in the class whilst Byleth had been absent too – namely that the likes of Sylvain and Ferdinand had transferred into the class. Fortunately, the classroom was more than accommodating to additions to the class. Seteth seemed to be okay with the change despite it meaning that the Golden Deer were beginning to vastly outnumber the Blue Lions and Black Eagles, with twelve students compared to seven, especially considering his previous concerns about Flayn joining the class due to numbers. This was also taking into account that Monica had briskly vanished from the Black Eagles once it was established that she had been the one who had nearly killed Byleth.

“Here's to Byleth returning to us!” Leonie had cheered once all desks had been pushed to the sides, and more than enough food and drinks for the class acquired from the dining hall. Everyone had a drink of sorts (obviously not of the alcoholic sort, lest Seteth come for their heads), and raised it in agreement.

Byleth quietly laughed and shook her head. She couldn’t quite get her head around that they had decided to celebrate like this. They had never done something like this when Claude returned to lessons after nearly being choked to death by the Death Knight, but then again, things were on high alert at that point and a party wouldn’t have been allowed at all.

As everyone began to chatter, Lysithea had been quick to make her way over to her. “I am curious, Byleth... do you have a scar from the injury?” she asked, bringing a cupcake to her mouth afterwards. “I heard rumour that you were attacked with a blade bearing silencing magic.”

For a moment, Byleth hesitated. She did have a scar, but was uncertain about showing it. Eventually she relented, and raised her shirt slightly to show her younger classmate. “The blade wasn’t a normal looking dagger that I was attacked with,” she whispered, that being her reasoning behind the scar looking rather irregular for a stab wound.

Lysithea nodded, and moved her hand close. “I cannot imagine how it could have felt like, being injured in such a way... But please know that we will stand by your side whilst the one who did this remains free. You are inherently one of the Golden Deer, and we will not stand idly by when one of our own gets hurt.”

Byleth smiled at her words. It was a comfort, knowing that she was seen as a member of the group. Even as a mercenary, she was always known as ‘Jeralt’s daughter’, and never felt as though she fitted in completely. “That means a lot to know…”

After a few more minutes of talking, Lysithea left Byleth alone, intending to do some reading whilst eating more of the sweets which had been brought to the classroom. That gave Byleth the chance to sit down, and take in just how much the few months she had spent as a student had changed her life. She could express herself better, she had friends, and she had even found herself in a relationship. Just those few things had a massive impact on everything about her.

Eventually, Byleth watched as Claude fell down onto the seat beside her, groaning quietly. “I swear, it’s like a competition trying to get to some of the food before Raphael does,” he muttered, moving to rest his head against her shoulder. “Luckily, I am stuffed. I could just pass out right here, right now. You don’t mind me using you as a pillow, do you?”

She laughed at his remarks, and shook her head. “You just go into your little food coma; I’ll wake you up when the party is dying down.”

“Thanks, By…” He shifted a little closer to her as he stretched out his arms, and closed his eyes. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep after that, and she laughed again as she used her free arm to ruffle at his hair.

Her actions didn’t go unnoticed, and she promptly found Lorenz stood in front of her, giving Claude a disappointed glance. “I must say, Byleth… You seem particularly close with our House Leader. Incredibly lenient with him too, he should know better than to fall asleep in such a manner.”

Byleth looked up at the Gloucester heir, and nodded. “We are close. And he asked before falling asleep on me, which I am fine with.”

“If that is the case, then I shall allow his actions to slide for now,” Lorenz stated, as though he was an authority over Claude and his actions. “However, are you not concerned about how being seen like this would have an impact on not just his reputation, but yours too? Claude shall have to find himself a wife upon graduation, and your father possesses an esteemed status in the Knights of Seiros. If word gets out about scenes such as this…”

Even though Byleth could tell that Lorenz was showing concern in one of the main ways that he knew how (regarding status), she wasn’t too keen on what he was saying. Positions and relations be damned, both she and Claude couldn’t care less.

“That won’t be a problem, Lorenz,” she eventually replied, her eyes glancing over to Claude as he continued to sleep. There were dark circles around his eyes. She had a feeling that it wasn’t just the sheer amount of food he had eaten that had knocked him out, but also him having lost a lot of sleep during the two weeks that she had been resting. She had seen the same with her father, after all.

For a moment, there was a silence, with Lorenz taking his time to process those few words she had said. His eyes then widened as he leaned in closer, his voice no more than a whisper. “Are you saying that _Claude von Riegan, _House Riegan’s mystery heir who appeared overnight, is _courting _you?”

Byleth simply kept a straight face. She saw no reason why both hers and Claude’s personal lives were of concern to him – just because it was known that he was making no progress in wooing women did not mean that Claude’s sudden (and successful) attempt at being her boyfriend had to be made public.

Fortunately, before the atmosphere could turn from one of concern to one of awkwardness, Claude mumbled in his sleep something incoherent about roasted meats – _of course he still had food on his mind to the point that he was dreaming about it – _before his arms tightened around Byleth’s.

“Perhaps this is a discussion to have at another time, Lorenz. Neither one of us have been in classes for two weeks until today, but Claude has still been awfully busy,” she stated, thinking of everything he had done for her as of late. He had been having to report to Rhea frequently (no less than twice a day) on her state, despite his lack of fondness towards the Archbishop. He had crafted a few more of those useful poisons for her to help her with protecting herself. He had even been helping her with menial tasks such as cleaning her clothes, getting books of shelves in the library for her, and even putting her shoes on due to the pain in her side. “I would rather not wake him up now that he is finally resting."

Though reluctant, Lorenz nodded. “If you say so, Byleth. But please know that should you ever need me to keep Claude in line, I shall gladly do so. Perhaps we could also have a conversation over tea at some time. I know that you and I have not been the closest of classmates, but upon hearing how close to death you were, it made me realise that perhaps I should do more to extend out a friendship.”

“That would be lovely, Lorenz. Perhaps not yet though, at least until I can feel that everything going on around me has stabilised somewhat. Maybe next week?”

“If that is what you wish. Good day, Byleth. And welcome back.”

Byleth watched as Lorenz briskly turned around, and made his way over to one of the newest Golden Deer. She kept an eye on him for a moment, and watched his lips as he spoke to Ferdinand. Fortunately, she couldn’t make out anything to do with her and Claude. She did, however, notice a hand gesture towards them, and Ferdinand looking in her direction. She raised a hand to wave at him, then turned away – she didn’t want it to appear as though she was trying to intrude in whatever noble conversation that they were having from afar.

She then turned her attention over to Claude, who was still sleeping. Even if it was bad manners for him to have fallen asleep on her as he had done, even if he had asked for permission, she found it endearing. The fact that Claude was comfortable enough to sleep with her watching over him was a privilege – he would likely never extend such a courtesy to anyone else. Something about that… made her feel warm. Warm was the best way for her to describe it, as she had never really felt it before…

Whilst Claude continued to sleep on her, and the party celebrating her return began to die down, Byleth had a few other Golden Deer come over to her to express their relief at her coming back. Leonie had ended up pushing Claude’s head away at one point so that she could embrace her – she had been beside herself in worry since she had heard of what had happened thanks to their sister-like bond. Hilda had also ended up giving her a hug, but was avoidant of the sleeping house leader. Her eyes were reddened and looked as though she had been crying, and that was no surprise after being one of the ones who had seen Byleth in the post-stabbing bloody mess.

Eventually, aside from one or two people who were helping to clean up and re-organise the classroom for the next day’s classes, only Byleth and Claude remained behind. She took that as the opportunity to wake him up.

Claude stirred slowly, his eyes only slightly opening at her voice and the nudge. “’s the party over…?”

“Just about. It’s evening now so there’s little over an hour until curfew. We won’t be able to stay here for much longer.”

“That’s fine,” he muttered, sitting up and stretching his arms out. “I wouldn’t mind getting some fresh air before then…” He then stood up, took hold of her arm, and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go for a walk before I feel the urge to fall asleep on you again, you’re very comfortable to sleep on…”

She nodded in agreement. A walk before having to return to their rooms for the night would be nice.

Outside, there was a chill in the air – it was nearing winter, so that was a given. Byleth was clearly in her element, whereas Claude was a bit unhappier with the temperature, but not to the point that he would openly complain about it.

“So… Anything interesting happen during my food-induced sleep?” he eventually asked as they made their way south from the classrooms, in the general direction of the gazebo and the dining hall.

Byleth looked at him, and pursed her lips. “If Lorenz questioning whether we are ‘courting’ counts as ‘something interesting happening’, then… I guess so.”

Claude stopped for a moment, then sighed. “I am not surprised. He’s always trying to find out everything he can about me that can be used against me. Mostly on his father’s orders, as he wants to lead the Alliance as soon as my grandfather kicks the bucket.”

“I almost feel sorry for him, if that’s the case,” she stated, tightening her grasp of his hand. “However, I don’t see how us dating could play against you. My father’s the captain of the Knights of Seiros, and having close ties to the Church is probably a good move with how influential it is on country-wide politics and the people.”

“That is definitely a point that plays in our favour, but in the end, that isn’t anything to do with the reason why I confessed to you. I love you – and no political nonsense is going to change that,” Claude grinned, before pulling her close to him to press a quick kiss to her lips. “So… Anything other than that happen at the party?”

“Not much… There was a bit of dancing, but I didn’t want to get involved. I’ve never really danced before…”

“Hmm, well that is going to have to change,” he chuckled, keeping his arms around her. “You see, it is nearly the Ethereal Moon. And during the Ethereal Moon, the Officer’s Academy holds a ball… A ball in which the students all dance and drink the night away. I’m obviously going to have to steal you away for a dance – what sort of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t?”


	24. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth has a nightmare, and goes to her father for comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write a soft father-daughter moment so uh, have that sandwiched between a lil' bit of drama!

Byleth tensed up as she saw the flames around her. They were licking up her skin, burning at her flesh, and threatening to consume every fibre of her being. She was wanting to run away from the flames, but her legs were carrying her forward against her will.

Even as the smoke filled her nostrils and her lungs, she continued on. Her eyes were stinging, and her entire body burned.

Then her legs came to a halt. She could see somebody else in the flames, doing nothing but standing there. Despite her blurred vision and the intensifying fire, she could just about make out a few notable features of the person. Long green hair which was burning at the tips, a charred blue dress with patches glowing red as it burned…

“Sothis…?!”

Her shout went unheard as she tried to reach out, and the flames grew fiercer. She was starting to choke on the fumes as her body burned and her consciousness began to fade.

The next thing that Byleth knew, she was lying in her dorm room, sweat pouring from her brow as she tried to catch her breath. It had just been a dream. She may have seen herself and Sothis perish in those flames, but it wasn’t real…

She sat upward, and used her arm to wipe away some of the sweat as she tried to shake off what she had dreamt about. The only thing is, she was worried. On the rare occasion that she had a dream over recent moons, things had actually happened. Not in the exact ways the dreams had happened, but they had still occurred. Meeting Claude. Sothis existing. Getting stabbed in the side. She hoped that nothing she had seen then would end up happening too.

After lying back down, Byleth spent over half an hour tossing and turning as she tried to fall asleep once more, but phantasms of the flames from the dream continued to haunt her. When she was on the verge of dozing off, she felt the suffocating feeling from the dream which made her jolt awake once more.

Eventually, it became too much for her. Far too much.

Not caring if she would get caught out after the curfew, she grabbed hold of her mercenary coat and boots, then pulled them on over her nightgown. She wanted to visit her father. Nobody could blame her for wanting to, could they? Nor could they stop her – it would sound cruel if she ended up telling that somebody had stopped her from seeing her father in a time where she needed him.

As she silently made her way through the grounds of Garreg Mach towards the room where her father stayed in. She knew that he was in the main building of the monastery, rather than the barracks due to his position as captain of the Knights of Seiros.

_She wondered if her mother stayed there with him too when she was alive._

As she ascended the stairs to the second floor, she was surprised that she hadn’t encountered… anyone. Not a soul was in sight. Much to her relief though, there was light coming from her father’s room. She walked over to the door, which was slightly cracked open, and quietly knocked on as she pushed at the door.

“Dad…?”

It was obviously that her presence was enough to surprise Jeralt, as she heard him yelp out as he dropped his journal and a pen that was in his hand. He then looked over at Byleth as she shut the door and walked over to him before she picked up his journal. “Kid? What are you doing here at this time?” he asked, before sighing when he realised that Byleth was peering at the page which he had just been writing in. “Give me that.”

“You… were drawing?”

Jeralt sighed as he reached out, and pulled the book out of Byleth’s hands. “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine,” he stated matter-of-factly, before gesturing for her to sit down on a nearby seat. She took hold of the chair, pulled it closer to him, and sat.

“Bad dream,” she eventually muttered, reaching out and taking hold of his hand. He was surprised again at that, as for as long as he could remember, she never did little gestures like that until she became an Officer’s Academy student. “I… I was on fire, and everything around me was burning… There was the girl with green hair from my other dreams that I’ve told you about before we came here, and we both died in those flames…”

Silently, Jeralt squeezed at her hand when he saw her tremble slightly as she mentioned burning to death. “You don’t need to worry, kid. Nothing like that will happen-“

“I dreamt about Claude before I even met him. I dreamt about being stabbed in my side a few weeks ago! What if… this is like those dreams?”

“It won’t, Byleth. Trust me, it won’t,” he calmly reassured, doing his best to ease the worry which he could see on her face. He felt a slight pang in his heart as he saw the way in which she had her eyes wide and panicked – it was familiar to him, though it wasn’t one he had seen in over twenty-one years. In an attempt to distract her, he returned to her question from earlier. “You asked if I was drawing, right? Well… it is more of a crappy attempt at remembering something. Someone, even.”

He released his hold of her hand as he held the journal out to show her more clearly what she had seen earlier. “I was trying to remember what your mother looked like,” he muttered. Byleth blinked away some of the tears in the corner of her eyes so that she could look properly. She supposed that it did look vaguely like a person… She could make out eyes and hair at the very least. And some sort of weird blobs which resembled limbs and a dress? “It helps that you look like her, but… She’s fading from my mind.”

Byleth placed her hand on the messy drawing, and closed her eyes. “Do you miss her…?”

“Every single day. She was… She meant everything to me. She was the sweetest soul, and I felt blessed to have been her husband, and to have had a child with her…” The nostalgia was clear in his voice, as was the pain of losing her. “Nothing hurts more than losing someone important to you. At the same time, nothing even compares to how… wonderful it feels to have somebody to hold dear.”

“Do you think that… maybe what’s going on between me and Claude could be like that?”

“I can’t answer that, kid. That’s for you and him to answer. All I know is that he’s a good kid. I appreciate that he’s looking out for you in ways that I can’t, not to mention making you all emotional. It’s quite a thing to get used to, seeing you smile, cry, love… I never thought I’d see you show those sorts of things.”

Byleth gave him a small smile, and moved her hand off the open journal so that he had the chance to close it and place it to the side. She had all but forgotten about her nightmare in those few minutes they had spoken about her mother. “I suppose that explains why I got called a demon a lot… A child amongst a group of mercenaries who didn’t show a shred of emotions? That… That probably would be terrifying…” she whispered, her voice conveying the exhaustion which she was doing her best to fight off.

“Trust me, it was until you grew used to it. You scared of a lot of the newcomers to our little group-“ Jeralt was cut off by Byleth yawning, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I miss being a mercenary… But we probably can’t go back now, can we…?”

“I… don’t think so, no.”

“That’s…” she yawned again, and closed her eyes as she pulled her legs up onto her seat. “A shame…”

Not too long later, Byleth had fallen asleep. As she had hoped, spending some time with her father had helped her to feel safe enough and calm enough to sleep following on from her nightmare. Jeralt decided to just leave her be – it wasn’t often her saw Byleth look as peaceful as she currently did.

Before he could do anything in preparation to go to sleep himself though, there was a knock at the door once again. He had gone from never having visitors in a night to two in the same one. He eyed up a dagger which was on a nearby table, but decided against it. Though the time was suspicious, he knew that knock – he’d heard it time and time again since he returned to Garreg Mach.

As he pulled the door open, he frowned. “What do you want, Seteth?”

“I apologise for disturbing you at this hour, Jeralt, but it is important… Come the morning, you and a group of knights will be needed to accompany a group of students to deal with a developing situation.”

Jeralt groaned, and turned around to step into the room again, the door being left open as his way of saying come into the room if it’s absolutely necessary. “The hell do you mean?”

Seteth followed him inside, and noticed that Byleth was also in there. Jeralt gave him a glare as if to say, ‘_don’t you dare apprehend her tomorrow for breaking the curfew’, _before tapping his foot.

“We have received a report that something odd is happening in Remire Village. It started with a strange illness afflicting half of the village, but now those who were ill and did not pass on have turned… violent. The village is in dire trouble, with rumours that it has now been set alight, and Lady Rhea has asked for the Golden Deer students to handle the situation due to the number of them in the class. She said to ask for you and some knights to assist.”

At the mention of the village being on fire, he glanced straight at Byleth. The nightmare she had told him about had lots of fire… And she was also one of the Golden Deer students.

“Fine…” he then sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “Do you think it’s worth letting…” he gestured his arm towards his sleeping daughter. “You know… Is it worth letting her come along, after what happened last moon?”

“I do not know. It would depend on how she is feeling. It would be worthwhile having her join us though, she does wield the Sword of the Creator after all.”

“Right…” Jeralt nodded, then paused. “Wait, the Sword of the Creator? That sword lost to history?”

“Yes. Did she not tell you?”

“No! I wouldn’t have asked if I knew!” he shouted, before stopping when he realised how loud he was being. “She said that she could use a ‘special’ sword, but not _that one!”_

After a few moments, Jeralt sighed, and shook his head.

“I should leave… I believe that we will be preparing to leave at about eight in the morning.”

Once Seteth left, and closed the door behind him, Jeralt returned to the seat he had been sat at, and closed his eyes.

_Byleth didn’t have a beating heart. It turned out that she possessed a crest held by only Sothis and Nemesis, over a thousand years ago. Now it seems that she could use a weapon that was lost to history! There was no wonder there were people after her life! _

_No damn wonder that Rhea held such an interest in her…_


	25. Flames and blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Golden Deer and the group of knights arrive at the burning Remire Village.
> 
> Byleth and Claude find themselves in a difficult situation, and may not be able to escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short-ish chapter, but I almost didn't even have one to upload today! So much has happened over recent days, and I didn't get around to writing until this morning!

“We frequented Remire Village a lot as mercenaries… The villagers knew us all, and we knew them. We had set rooms in the inn where we could stay, they would invite us to join any festivities… And now look at it. It’s… It’s all in flames…” Byleth whispered as the Golden Deer house and a group of knights were stood outside the burning village. Claude could see tears in the corner of her eyes, so he reached out and took hold of her hand.

The action did not go unnoticed.

“Right where we are stood is where Edelgard, Dimitri, and me were almost killed by bandits a good few moons ago too. I spent a lot of time up in that tree over there,” Claude began, using his hand holding onto a bow to point. “Sylvain is stood more or less where the bandit leader broke Dimitri’s arm and tried to kill him. Leonie is where Edelgard fought.”

Byleth looked at him, and bit her lip. She still felt some guilt about that situation. Had she insisted that everyone from the mercenary group to stay just a little bit longer, then the situation where the house leaders were almost slaughtered could have been entirely avoided.

Everyone quickly gathered near Jeralt and Seteth for orders regarding what was to be done, given that already half of the village had burned to the ground, and time was of the essence.

“There are clearly enemies hidden in the flames, but also, there are rampant villagers. Avoid them at all costs. Rescue the villagers who have not succumbed to this illness sending them into fits of rage and violence,” Seteth explained to the students. “We will need one or two of you to remain here as healing support for the villagers, knights, and your fellow classmates. For those of you rescuing, try to remain in pairs so that you have backup if you must fight, or for if you are burned by the flames.”

Before everyone had completely split off to battle, Jeralt quickly pulled Byleth and Claude aside.

“Both of you be careful, yeah? Look, in the distance…” he pointed to the furthest point of the village that could be seen through the flames and smoke. “That man matches the description of the ‘Death Knight’ guy you’ve mentioned in the past.”

Byleth saw as Claude’s hand instinctively covered his neck, and frowned in worry.

“And kid… If your injuries from last moon flare up, fall back. That’s an order from your old man. You make sure that she does if that happens, von Riegan. Now go, before the situation gets any worse.”

* * *

* * *

At some point, Byleth and Claude had found themselves surrounded. Not just by rampant villagers, but by a group of mysterious enemies. Byleth recognised them as those who had stalked her in Gaspard lands, and had tried attacking her on multiple occasions on her way to Garreg Mach.

The pair stood back-to-back, Byleth holding the Sword of the Creator, and Claude having substituted his bow for an axe. Neither of them were in the best of states, having received burns from the flames and other minor injuries. Byleth’s magic still hadn’t fully returned following on from Monica stabbing her, so she was incapable of healing their wounds at present. She did, however, have her divine pulse ability back after taking on part of Sothis’ soul, so she knew that she could fall back on that if necessary.

One by one, the crazed villagers attacked them. Both students felt immense guilt as they cut them down, especially when one of them cried out for their child as they found themselves impaled on Byleth’s sword, blood seeping from their mouth and from their wound onto the blade. Despite that, many of the villagers which they killed… thanked them.

They had ended their suffering.

When the villagers had stopped attacking, that was when the other enemies began their assault. They were much fiercer, much more violent. But… Something didn’t seem right to Byleth. Normally, they would intend to kill. They were trying to tire and incapacitate them both.

_Had something changed which made them decide that they no longer needed to kill her, and that they also needed to take Claude?_

The only thing that she could think of was the failed murder attempt. Perhaps something about that had changed their plans?

“Well, how… expected this is, seeing the two of you together…”

The new voice made the pair look towards a structure nearby, in the centre of the village, whilst doing their best to fight off their enemies.

Claude gritted his teeth as he swung his axe, having realised who was addressing them. “T-Tomas? What are you doing here?!”

Byleth’s eyes widened as she looked in the direction of the one Claude was addressing. It truly _was _the Garreg Mach librarian.

_Why was he here too?_

“My name is not Tomas. It is Solon!” As the pair continued to fight, they could see ‘Tomas’ transforming in the corner of their vision. “I was originally at Garreg Mach to obtain the blood of a girl named ‘Flayn’, but some… interesting situations arose. Before the Fell Star’s arrival, one with the blood of Riegan, out of dislike of his predicament at the time, said that he would prefer being kidnapped over what he was going through… So I arranged for the Death Knight to claim him and the girl.”

Claude felt sick as he heard that. “It was a figure of speech! I was exhausted, had recently been almost killed by bandits, had a professor who didn’t give a shit about his students, and was having to do all sorts of manual labour as detention!” he snapped, his hands tightening around his axe as he sliced through the throat of an approaching enemy.

“That does not change what you said now, does it? Now, where was I… Yes, eventually, the one who bears the crest stone of the Fell Star rather than a heart, arrived at Garreg Mach. I am talking about you obviously, Byleth Eisner. Our aim was originally to kill you, and to retrieve the stone. However, your closeness to the one of Riegan blood gave us an opportunity…”

Claude had noticed that Byleth had grown still when Solon said that she didn’t have a heart, and only a crest stone. He turned around quickly to get her to snap out of it, then realised that she was staring with wide eyes at the Sword of the Creator. Or more specifically…

_The hole where a crest stone should have been._

“B-Byleth…"

“We could kidnap the one with Riegan blood, so that in addition to your father with the blood of the wretched Seiros, we could lure you in and force you to give up the stone yourself. But that didn’t exactly happen as we intended.” Solon was now walking closer to the pair. Byleth had snapped back to reality at this point, and was now pointing her sword at him as Claude focussed on the approaching enemies. “Kronya, an ally of mine, took on the form of Monica von Ochs in our next attempt to take the crest stone. The intent was to kill you during the mock battle in Gronder Field… But you had been found before your life left your body. However, Kronya’s blade was coated in you blood. The Fell Star’s blood. So we did a little… experiment.”

The two students were now facing Solon, horrified as he threw his arms out in the indication that all that had happened in Remire village was all because they had some of Byleth’s blood.

Claude, in his frustration, pulled his bow out and began to try and aim it towards Solon. Unfortunately, the intensifying heat from the flames was beginning to make it a struggle for both him and Byleth to fully concentrate or hold onto their weapons.

“We now feel that it will be more… fruitful if we were to claim you both. We can experiment on the one with Riegan’s blood, whilst we drain the blood of the Fell Star until she no longer has enough to sustain herself, then take the stone from her body. Why, we may even use her blood first in our experiments on him…”

“C-Claude, we need to get out of here, now!”

“Agreed!”

As the two did their best to fall back to the outskirts of the village, a blast of dark magic landed in front of them, blocking off their path. “Neither of you will be going anywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, do I love a good cliffhanger.


	26. Attempted getaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth and Claude do their best to deal with their extremely difficult situation with the very few cards they had been played.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short-ish chapter this time... Animal Crossing has taken up almost all of my spare time this week, and I am absolutely 100% going back to playing it once this is uploaded...

Byleth gritted her teeth as she swung her blade towards Solon, who was cackling at her reaction towards his plans. She wasn’t happy in the slightest. No, she was pissed off. Annoyed at what he wanted to do to her, and what he threatened to do to Claude.

As much as Claude wanted to stop her, he could understand her anger and frustration. She had been stuck treading on eggshells for almost eight months and almost lost her life because of these people after her. Now that she knew why they were after her, her rage was _more than _justified. Hell, he wanted to act just as rashly, but given the precarious situation which they were in, with flames surrounding them from three sides with Solon on the other, at least one of them needed to keep a level head.

He pulled out an arrow, and tried to aim for the abnormally large head of their opponent, though the intense heat made his arms unsteady. He couldn’t completely focus.

Every once in a while, he could see Byleth looking back at him as she did her own attacks. He could see the sheer amount of panic in her eyes – something he had never seen her show before, with it being a look he didn’t want to see on her face _ever _again.

Finally, he was able to let the arrow loose. It narrowly missed Solon’s arm, which made him frown as he went to pull out another. Before he could reach it though, he noticed a stray ember from the flames just as it reached the yellow cloak he had to wear as the Golden Deer house leader. It was burning very quickly, so he had to quickly remove it and run closer to Byleth as the fire grew ever closer.

“Wh-What do we do, Claude? I-I keep landing hits on him, but very little is happening...”

“We just need to get out of here… It’s dangerous fighting him without support,” he muttered, watching as the enemy began to prepare a dark magic attack. “We need to either get past him without getting hit, or go through the fire – and I don’t think the second one is a vali-! Look out!”

Claude grabbed hold of Byleth’s arm roughly, and pushed them both back as the attack was sent in their direction. The dark magic managed to brush against his back, leading to him wincing in pain and almost slumping against her as he found himself barely able to keep stood up. Then… He noticed something in one of Byleth’s pockets, sticking out ever so slightly.

“P-Poison!”

_Take that, Seteth – there is a valid reason for him to have been making those poisons all this time!_

Byleth’s eyes widened at his shout, thinking at first that there was somehow poison in the dark magic which had hurt him. She then saw him looking towards her pocket, and realised what he was getting at.

She then reached into her pocket, before pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. “You’re a genius… It’s a paralysis poison…”

After taking a moment to help Claude stabilise his footing, she passed the small vial of poison over to him. “Can you coat an arrow with it, and shoot him? We will have only one shot, but… it’s worth a try, right?”

“I’m… unsure. My aim is terrible because of the smoke and fire, and my back-“

“Give me your bow and arrows then. I’ll try.”

Claude had never seen Byleth use a bow before, so he didn’t have a clue on how good she was in terms of using one, but allowed her to take his weapon anyway as he did his best to keep an eye out for further incoming attacks. If seeing her pick up a lance and an axe was anything to go by, it was likely that she would pick up using it very quickly. Unless, of course, she had past experience.

After Byleth had been able to cover an arrow with the poison, she took a deep breath (which she quickly realised was a bad idea when surrounded by fires) and after a few moments of coughing, she prepared to shoot it. Claude could see her hands trembling, so he did his best to take hold of her arms in an attempt to steady her.

“I’m so sorry if I miss, Clau-!”

“Shh. Focus.”

Moments later, Solon stilled.

Not as a result of the arrow, however.

* * *

* * *

“Kid, I get that your nickname is the ‘Ashen Demon’, but I never expected to see it taken literally…”

Byleth glanced up at Jeralt with a deadpan look on her face as Marianne carefully healed a burn on her arm. “I never expected to be backed into a flaming corner by somebody who wanted to kill me and harm Claude, but that happened.”

“I know, I know, you just had a dark look on your face and it didn’t suit you. I felt that I needed to lighten the mood.”

“I get it, just…” she sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. Something kind of… snapped in my head when that Solon person threatened Claude, and…” Byleth clenched her fists, but was quickly made to loosen them when Marianne looked up at her. “I didn’t like it.”

Jeralt frowned at Byleth as she then closed her eyes and allowed Marianne to continue healing the burn. As much as he was glad that she was alive, he was extremely concerned for his daughter – she had not only dreamt of being caught in a fire, but actually had done, and on top of that, she seemed to have an awful lot plaguing her mind ever since Seteth managed to find both her and Claude and saved them from that ‘Solon’ who was attacking them.

Eventually, Marianne finished her healing, and left to go and focus on other people who had been injured in Remire. Jeralt took the opportunity to then sit down beside Byleth, and took hold of her hand. “Remember what I said to you when we first left this place, all those moons ago? You don’t have to tell me what’s bothering you, but if you ever need to talk…”

“My old man is there for me? Yes, I remember…” Byleth had a faintly nostalgic smile as she finished what he was saying, before she closed her eyes. “I’m fine at the moment… I just hope that Claude is okay. Maybe I should go and see him…”

“Go ahead. I’m sure he’ll be wanting to see you too, kid.”

Jeralt watched in silence as Byleth got up, then made her way over to Marianne to ask about Claude’s whereabouts as his burn and dark magic injury were healed. Something had definitely happened that had affected her during that battle, but he wouldn’t force her to tell him unless she wanted to. But something was definitely not right - both this and the revelations he had the night before were… suspicious. And he had a feeling that Rhea may be able to provide some of the answers.


End file.
